Antico and the Development of Bronze Casting in Italy at the End of the Quattrocento

PIER JACOPO ALARI-BONACOLSI of Mantua, called Antico (ca. 1460-1528), spent a lifetime in the service of the Gonzagas as a goldsmith as well as a sculptor of elegant bronze reductions of the marble statuary of the Hellenized Roman world then being unearthed in Italy. He was among the strictest of the classicizing artists of the late quattrocento, continuing the uniquely archaeological tradition founded in Mantua by Mantegna, and was one of the Italian sculptors responsible for the popularity of the small bronze as a tangible expression of antique forms and ideals.'