'Beautiful in form and execution': the design and construction of Andrea Riccio's Paschal candlestick

• Autores: Shelley Sturman, Simona Cristanetti, Debra Pincus, Karen Serres, Dylan Smith
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 151, Nº 1279, 2009, págs. 666-672
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The writer discusses the design and construction of the bronze paschal candlestick made by goldsmith and sculptor Andrea Brisosco, known as Il Riccio, for the Basilica del Santo in Padua, Italy. Almost four meters high, the candlestick was acknowledged as a masterpiece immediately upon its completion in 1516. While its iconography has been extensively analyzed, the candlestick has not been closely examined in terms of its manufacture and assembly. It can be asked whether such a complex work was cast in one piece, as 19th-century guidebooks claimed; and, more crucially, if made in parts, how Riccio cast the separate units and assembled them into a monumental bronze. The writers go on to examine these issues on the basis of a technical examination of the piece, involving close visual inspection, detailed photography, and surface analysis of the metal alloys.