ANTELAMI, Benedetto

The two prophets’ statues flanking the central portal on the fa�ade of the cathedral in Fidenza, David on the left and Ezekiel on the right, are standing in niches and are very rare examples of three-dimensional Romanesque sculpture.

The two prophets’ statues flanking the central portal on the fa�ade of the cathedral in Fidenza, David on the left and Ezekiel on the right, are standing in niches and are very rare examples of three-dimensional Romanesque sculpture.

The first known work by Antelami is this Deposition on the pulpit of the Cathedral of Parma. Antelami’s rigorous and severe style has roots in Provencal sculpture and particularly in the conception of statuary inherited from antiquity. The Virgin, St John, and the Holy Women, standing one behind the other, are clearly set off from the background, and the drapery folds are chiselled into the marble with a precision suggesting the art of the bronzeworker or goldsmith. Antelami disregards picturesque, anecdotal, or formal devices; his compact, firm forms have affinities with classical antiquity. Only the bowed heads and a restrained gesture of the hands evoke the pathos of the scene.

The sculptural decorations, whose program depicts the importance of the Birth of Christ for humankind’s salvation, are by Antelami and his workshop. The relief of the Descent from the Cross, originally part of the cathedral’s choir screen or pulpit, is the earliest work of his that we know of. The scene is framed by a broad vine scroll band in the niello technique. It is divided into three groups, the central one being the recovery of the body. On the left, lined up in the manner of a procession, are the mourners together with the personification of Ecclesia, and on the right stepped in two levels, is a procession of male Jews, and in front of them soldiers with Synagoga, throwing dice for Christ’s robes.

Antelami’s work constitutes an important body of Romanesque sculpture in Italy. Aspects of his stylistic innovation have been imitated on several occasions, his legacy can be found in the work of Nicola Pisano and his pupil Arnolfo di Cambio.

The two prophets’ statues flanking the central portal on the fa�ade of the cathedral in Fidenza, David on the left and Ezekiel on the right, are standing in niches and are very rare examples of three-dimensional Romanesque sculpture.

Between the end of the Roman Empire and the early 11th century there was virtually no figure sculpture in Europe. The art had to be re-invented. It began tentatively in the form of small low reliefs, developing slowly into life-size sculpture in the round. Benedetto Antelami is the representative of the late 12th-century sculpture.

Romanesque sculpture was at the height of its vitality during the last third of the twelfth and even at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The quest for new paths began about 1180 by the appearance of strong personalities. Among them, Benedetto Antelami is perhaps the sculptor whose fame lasted longest. The quality of his style makes him an artist without compare between Romanesque and Gothic art. His signed masterpiece is in the Cathedral of Parma, however, stylistic analysis clearly proves that Antelami worked also in the Baptistery with his assistants.

September is illustrated by the grape harvest.

The main surviving monument by Antelami is the Baptistery at Parma. This is a massive octogonal building, not in the least Gothic in its general appearence, although the interior is roofed with a ribbed vault. Whether Antelami designed it is not certain, but he was certainly responsible for the portals, since it is on one of these that his name appears. These portals are for their date unique in Italy in that they describe an ambitious and coherent iconographic programme. This prompts comparison with France, for it was only in France that such thought had been given to the programmatic content of the church portal.

Two of the three portals are devoted to subjects familiar from France - the Virgin and the Last Judgment. However, the architectural layout can be derived not from France but from previous north Italian sources. The style of the sculpture is entirely that of the area, the figures being solid with rather large round heads. There are no column figures.