peoplepill id: pier-jacopo-alari-bonacolsi
PJAB
Italy
2 views today
3 views this week
Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi
Italian artist

Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
Italian artist
A.K.A.
Antico Pier Jacopo Ilario Bonacolsi Pier Giacomo Ilario Bonacolsi Pier Jacomo Ilario L'Antico Bonacolsi Pier Jacopo di Antonio Alari-Bonacolsi
Places
Work field
Gender
Male
Place of birth
Mantua, Province of Mantua, Lombardy, Italy
Place of death
Gazzuolo, Province of Mantua, Lombardy, Italy
Age
68 years
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (c. 1460–1528), called L'Antico by his contemporaries for the refined interpretation of the Antique they recognized in his work, was a 16th-century North Italian sculptor, known for his finely detailed small bronzes all'Antica—coolly classicizing, often with gilded details, and silver-inlaid eyes, a refinement that is found in some classical and Hellenistic Greek bronzes.

There is very little documentation of Bonacolsi, in spite of the aristocratic name he bore, that of the signori of Mantua who preceded the Gonzaga until 1328. Born probably in Gazzuolo, near Mantua, he may have been trained as a goldsmith, like his only rival in Mantua, Andrea Riccio. He found patronage among the Gonzaga, at first in the court that gathered at Gazzuolo around the natural son and favorite of the marquis of Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga, Gianfrancesco, and his wife Antonia del Balzo, whose wedding in 1479 was commemorated in a pair of medallions by Bonacolsi. Gianfrancesco had recently come into possession of the fief, and a refined court gathered round the young couple, of personalities both intellectual and artistic: Ludovico Ariosto, Bernardo Tasso, Matteo Bandello, Baldassare Castiglione and l'Antico. At Gazzuolo the parish church became the burial place of the Gonzaga: there Pico della Mirandola is also interred.

Bonacolsi found patrons after 1490 above all in the brilliant court at Mantua of Isabella d'Este, who married Francesco II Gonzaga in that year. In Mantua one of Renaissance Italy's finest collections of Roman sculptures and antiquities was to be found. Bonacolsi made many small reductions of Roman sculptures as well as improvising upon the themes and styles of Antiquity. His well-knit cleanly defined torsos recall the art of Andrea Mantegna, the giant artistic personality of contemporary Mantua.

His bronzes were remarkable for their extremely fine facture, meticulously cast and finely cleaned and finished. His black patination is characteristic.. He was the first sculptor to realize the value of casting replicas of his bronzes by preserving his refined wax originals. His cool, refined, slightly precious works were designed for close appreciation in the privacy of a courtly studiolo.

Bonacolsi also worked as a restorer. On one of the marble horses of the Dioscuri on the Quirinal in Rome his signature is discreetly inscribed. His trip to Rome, where he was able to study the Apollo Belvedere at firsthand, is his only known venture outside Mantua.

He died at Gazzuolo in 1528.

Representative works

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Lists
Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi is in following lists
comments so far.
Comments
From our partners
Sponsored
Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi
arrow-left arrow-right instagram whatsapp myspace quora soundcloud spotify tumblr vk website youtube pandora tunein iheart itunes