3 PIERJACOPO
ALARI-BONACOLSI
called Antico
Italian (Mantua)
circa 1460-1528
Bust of a Young Man, circa 1520
Bronze with silver eyes
54.6 cm (2iy 2 in.)
86.SB.688
Originally trained as a goldsmith, Pier Jacopo became the principal sculptor at the
court of Mantua in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. His restorations
of ancient fragments, as well as his numerous bronze reductions and copies of famous
statues and busts from antiquity, earned him the nickname Antico, meaning antique.
Antico's emulation of ancient art extended not only to the forms and subjects of his
compositions but also to his technique. For instance, in the Museum's sculpture, the
silver eyes and excavated pupils—which give the bust such an arresting presence—
recall ancient bronzes in which inlaid silver and copper were used to accentuate certain
anatomical features and add coloristic variety. In other works Antico gilded the hair,
drapery, or other details of the costume to create striking contrasts between the bright
gold and the dark, patinated bronze.
The Museum's bust depicts a man in early adulthood, sporting a smooth mustache,
close-cut sideburns, a hint of facial hair below the lower lip, and an abundant mass
of curly hair that twists and spirals in all directions. The bronze is closely based on an
ancient marble bust now in the Hispanic Society of America in New York. Although
the identity of the subject of the marble portrait is uncertain, it was likely thought in
the sixteenth century to represent a Roman emperor. Antico may have copied it in
bronze as part of a series of emperor busts to decorate a palace interior or grotto.
Antico's erudite patrons would have keenly appreciated the bust's visual reference
to antiquity, in addition to the outstanding quality of the bronze and its precisely
finished details. PAF20 EUROPEAN SCULPTURE