Opening October 15 and on view through January 18, the Frick Collection will present the first monographic exhibition dedicated to Andrea Riccio (1470‱532), one of the greatest †and least-known †bronze masters of the Renaissance.
Although the artist was celebrated in the Sixteenth Century as a “sovereign master of bronze” and is acknowledged today as one of the most sublimely creative sculptors of the Italian Renaissance, Riccio’s achievement is still not widely recognized or generally understood. His oeuvre remains the province of specialists, and the majority of his works are scattered across museum collections, where they are viewed in isolation. Even Riccio’s greatest and largest commission, the extraordinary Paschal Candelabrum, stands alone, distantly shrouded in the shadowed choir of the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, Italy.
The long-overdue exhibition and publication aim to introduce Riccio’s dramatically beautiful work to the general and scholarly public by presenting for fresh examination a significant portion of his known production.
“Andrea Riccio: Renaissance Master of Bronze” includes all the objects attributed to him that reside in public and private collections in the United States and features important examples from institutions across Europe, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
The exhibition brings together 30 of the sculptor’s rare autograph bronzes, two of his fragmentary, life-size terracottas and a selection of statuettes associated with his workshop. The sculptures span every phase of Riccio’s career and are representative of the genres in which he worked: figurative statuettes, functional bronzes and narrative reliefs.
The exhibition is presented exclusively at the Frick Collection, along with a range of educational programs and a richly illustrated and scholarly catalog. The exhibition is organized by the Frick’s curator and sculpture and Renaissance specialist Denise Allen, with Peta Motture, senior curator of sculpture and project chief curator of the Medieval and Renaissance galleries, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The Frick Collection is at 1 East 70th Street. For information, www.frick.org or 212-288-0700.
