ARNOLDI, ALBERTO. - Known as Alberto Fiorentino, sculptor, son of a Lombard stonecutter: he is mentioned in a tale by Sacchetti. In 1351 he was working under the direction of Francesco Talenti on the window openings of Giotto’s campanile in Florence; in 1357–58 he was working at the Cathedral. In 1361 he executed a relief Madonna and Child within the lunette of the side door of the oratory of the Compagnia del Bigallo; likewise his is the statue of the Madonna and Child flanked by two candle-bearing angels on the altar of the same oratory: the group was commissioned in 1359 and completed in 1364.
According to Sacchetti, A. entered the service of the duke of Milan, Galeazzo Visconti: the year of his death is unknown. The series of reliefs with the Sacraments on the exterior of Giotto’s campanile has rightly been attributed to him. A direct pupil and follower of Andrea Pisano, he interprets the latter’s style with sculptural vigour and with an almost geometrical strictness of form and composition in the reliefs of the Sacraments, which are vividly expressive and of the highest iconographic interest; in the Bigallo sculptures, somewhat metallic in their dryness, the influence of Orcagna may be perceived.