BLW Model of the Virgin Mary and Holy Women

Antonio Begarelli, also known as Begarino (1499–1565) was an Italian sculptor. He was born at Modena, and is said to have been instructed by Giovanni dell'Abbate, the father of the painter

Niccolò Niccolò is an Italian male given name, derived from the Greek Nikolaos meaning "Victor of people" or "People's champion". There are several male variations of the name: Nicolò, Niccolò, Nicolas, and Nicola. The female equivalent is Nicole. The fe ...

. Begarelli worked chiefly in Modena, where many churches are decorated with his sculptures in

terra-cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

; and in his later years also at

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. These are free standing figures, nearly life-size, grouped together above altars in the chapels and apparently intended to replace pictures. This peculiar adaptation of sculpture was first used in Modena by Guido Mazzoni, called II Modanino, a highly gifted realist artist. The assertion that Begarelli was associated with

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

seems to be incorrect. It has been supposed (by Vidriani, 1652), that Begarelli made the models from which Correggio painted many of his floating figures, and even instructed his friend in the art of modelling. Begarelli's figures have a far closer resemblance to those of the Ferrarese painter

Benvenuto Tisi Benvenuto Tisi (or Il Garofalo) (1481September 6, 1559) was a Late-Renaissance-Mannerist Italian painter of the School of Ferrara. Garofalo's career began attached to the court of the Duke d'Este. His early works have been described as "idyllic ...

than to those of Correggio. They have the same types as the former used, and his draperies are similarly arranged. Whilst Mazzoni's terra-cotta figures are painted in variegated colours, Begarelli painted them entirely in white. Late Renaissance art biographer

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

relates that " Michelangelo, when passing through Modena, saw many beautiful figures which the Modenese sculptor, Maestro Antonio Begarino, had made of terra-cotta, coloured to look like marble, which appeared to him to be most excellent productions; and, as that sculptor did not know how to work in marble, he said, 'If this earth were to become marble, woe to the antiques.".

, ''Vite'' Begarelli died in 1565. His pupils included Prospero Spani, Alberto Fontana, and

Niccolò dell'Abbate Niccolò dell'Abbate, sometimes Nicolò and Abate (1509 or 15121571) was a Mannerist Italian painter in fresco and oils. He was of the Emilian school, and was part of the team of artists called the School of Fontainebleau that introduced the I ...

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* 1490s births 1565 deaths Artists from Modena 16th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors {{Italy-sculptor-stub