Andrea Briosco
Encyclopedia
Sobriquet
A sobriquet is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. It is usually a familiar name, distinct from a pseudonym assumed as a disguise, but a nickname which is familiar enough such that it can be used in place of a real name without the need of explanation...
meaning "curly"; he is also known as Il Riccio and Andrea Crispus ("curly" in Latin). He is mainly known for small bronzes
Bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze".Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Then, as the bronze cools, it...
, often practical objects such as inkwells, door knockers or fire-dogs, exquisitely sculpted and decorated in a classicising Renaissance style.
He was born at Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, and first trained as a goldsmith by his father, Ambrogio di Cristoforo Briosco. He later began to study bronze casting under Bartolomeo Bellano
Bartolomeo Bellano
Bartolomeo Bellano, also known as Bartolomeo Vellano, was an Italian renaissance sculptor and architect who was born in Padua in 1437 or 1438...
, a pupil of Donatello
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
. As an architect, he is known for the church of Santa Giustina in his native city. His masterpieces are the bronze Paschal candelabrum in the choir in Basilica of Sant'Antonio
Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua
The Pontifical Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica in Padua, northern Italy. Although the Basilica is visited as a place of pilgrimage by people from all over the world, it is not the titular cathedral of the city, a title belonging to the...
at Padua (1515), and the two bronze reliefs (1507) of David dancing before the Ark and Judith and Holofernes in the same church. His bronze and marble tomb of the physician Girolamo della Torre in San Fermo at Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
was beautifully decorated with reliefs, which were taken away by the French and are now in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
. His smaller, easily transportable, works appealed to collectors across Europe.