Niccolò dell'Arca

Niccolò dell’Arca (c. 1435-1440 – 2 March 1494) was an Italian Early Renaissance sculptor. He is also known under the names Niccolò da Ragusa, Niccolò da Bari and Niccolò d'Antonio d'Apulia. The surname “dell’Arca” refers to his contribution to the Arca di San Domenico.

The place and the year of his birth are not certain. He was probably born in Apulia, perhaps in Bari, and then most likely lived for some time in Dalmatia. According to C. Gnudi (see ref.) he received training there by the Dalmatian sculptor Giorgio da Sebenico.

The Burgundian elements in his sculpture are attributed by some art historians to his presumed participation in the triumphal arch of the Castel Nuovo in Naples during the 1450s (where he would have known the Catalan sculptor Guillem Sagrera and would be influenced by his style).

Others, rejecting his training in Naples, contend instead that he travelled to France in the late 1460s. According to them, his further training then allegedly took place in Siena, influenced by the works of Jacopo della Quercia and Donatello.

He was mentioned for the first time in September 1462 in Bologna as Maestro Nicolò da Puglia, a “master of terracotta figures”. This probably refers to the “Compianto sul Cristo morto”, terracotta group in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna (also mentioned in a Bull of 1464 by Pope Paul II). A life-size group of six separate figures stand lamenting in a semicircle around the dead Christ in a lying posture. The dramatic pathos, the expressions of grief and torment of the figures is intensified by the realism of their dramatic facial details. However the date of this innovative contribution to Renaissance sculpture is uncertain. Instead of c. 1460, some date it between 1485 and 1490.

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