Engravings of Drawings of Andrea Riccio's Paschal candlestick at S. Antonio at Padua,” by Baron Henri de Triqueti (1803-74). Source: Charles Perkins, Plates 26 and 28, facing pp. 226 and 228 respectively. Published in 1868. These drawings, with their attention to detail, are exquisite works of art in themselves. Of special interest here is Perkins's comment in the text. He reports Triqueti as saying that it was this candlestick rather than Riccio's bas-reliefs in the church that made the Renaissance sculptor's reputation — even though the bas-reliefs themselves "contain lessons sufficient to form a sculptor" (qtd. p. 226). In designing the great doors of the Madeline, Triqueti is generally thought to have been influenced by the Renaissance sculptor Ghiberti, whose "Gates of Pardise" doors to the Baptistery in Florence are so famous. But Riccio, whose two bas-reliefs in the choir depict dramatic episodes from the Old Testament, might well have been the more important source of inspiration, especially in view of what he himself said about them.
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Bibliography
Perkins, Charles C. Italian sculptors: being a history of sculpture in northern, southern, and eastern Italy. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1868. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Getty Research Institute. Web. 11 August 2016.
Created 11 August 2016