BEGARELLI, Antonio

Italian sculptor, part of a family of sculptors. He was the son of a kiln owner, and his formative influences probably included works by the Emilian terracotta sculptors Benedetto degli Erri, Galeotto Pavesi, Guido Mazzoni and Giovanni dell’Abate. He may have trained with Giovanni, and it has been suggested that he was apprenticed to Alfonso Lombardo in Bologna; certainly he was aware of artistic developments in Bologna, Ferrara and Parma.

Possibly the earliest mention of him is a document of 1522 about a terracotta Virgin and Child, but the authenticity of this is uncertain. A more reliable source, of 1524, refers to the Pietà group made for the Compagnia di San Bernardino, finished in 1526. During this period he produced the funeral monument of Gian Galeazzo Boschetti (d. 1524), in the parish church of San Cesario near Modena. The depiction of the deceased leaning on his elbow and reading was inspired by a tomb by Bartolomeo Spani in Reggio Emilia Cathedral. Begarelli’s approach to the wall tomb was pictorial, emphasizing the contrast between the grey stone of the sepulchre and the warm colour of the terracotta. In 1527 his Crib was installed in Modena Cathedral (in situ). The following year a large statue of the Virgin was installed on the façade of the town hall, and he received a small pension.

In 1529 he was commissioned by Giacomo Belleardi to create a family tomb in San Francesco, Modena; known through a 19th-century description, this must have been similar to the Boschetti tomb but with two figures.