ARNOLFO di CAMBIO. — Sculptor and architect, born at Colle Val d'Elsa around 1240–45, died in Florence on 18 March 1302. He is mentioned as Nicola Pisano’s assistant in the 1266 contract for the pulpit of Siena Cathedral and in other records of payments in 1267 and 1268 relating to this work, completed in 1269. It cannot be established persuasively—contrary to the opinion of certain scholars (Venturi, Ragghianti, Barsotti, Carli)—that A. collaborated on the Sienese pulpit, on the ark of S. Domenico in Bologna (1265–67), designed by Nicola Pisano, or on the capitals of Siena Cathedral, imbued with general reminiscences of Nicola’s art. It appears, however, highly probable that A. executed the sculptures of the tympanum in the monument to Adriano V (d. in 1276) in the church of S. Francesco at Viterbo. The monument to Cardinal Annibaldi (d. in 1276) in S. Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, now dismembered, must certainly be regarded as the work of A.; the recumbent statue of the deceased is preserved in the basilica, and the high relief representing the ceremony of the Mass in the cloister of the same basilica. In 1277 we find A. in Perugia, where his services were requested by fra' Benvegnate, engaged in the work on the aqueduct and fountain in the main square. Around 1277 A. must have sculpted the honorary statue of Carlo d'Angiò in the Capitoline Museum, and the fragment of a Gothic arch with a headless figure in the same museum also belongs to him. The disputed portrait of a pontiff in the museum of Palazzo Venezia in Rome should likewise be assigned approximately to the same period. In 1281 A. was again in Perugia, where three «thirsty men» by him remain in the picture gallery—which originally must have formed the sculptural decoration of a fountain—as well as the headless figure of a writing personage, recently discovered by Mariani. The tomb of Cardinal Guglielmo di Braye in the church of S. Domenico at Orvieto dates from 1282 (Hoc opus fecit Arnulfus); the tabernacle in the basilica of S. Paolo in Rome dates from 1285 (Hoc opus fecit Arnulfus cum suo socio Petro). The Presope in S. Maria Maggiore in Rome must be assigned to a period not far removed from the date of the ciborium of S. Paolo. Only the recumbent statue of Pope Honorius IV (1287), now in S. Maria in Aracoeli, remains of his tomb. Dated (1293) and signed is the tabernacle in S. Cecilia in Rome. For Boniface VIII A. executed the chapel, consecrated in 1296, and the tomb; only a few remains survive in the Vatican Grottoes: the statue of the Pontiff lying on the funerary bed, two curtain-drawing angels, and the bust of the Pope giving a blessing. Under Boniface VIII the bronze statue of St. Peter in the Vatican Basilica must have been fashioned; some scholars have erroneously attributed it to late antiquity. A.’s name appears for the last time in a Florentine document of 1300, in which he is called «capomaestro» of the cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore, which, in its original form, was decorated with various groups of statues executed by A. Of these there remain the Madonna Regina, the so-called Santa Reparata, the Virgin from a Nativity in the Museo dell'Opera, as well as, from the Dormitio Virginis, the recumbent Madonna and a young apostle embracing her feet, and two corroded busts of apostles in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in Berlin.
The attempt made by certain scholars (Keller) to regard A. chiefly as an entrepreneur of sculptural complexes—that is, primarily responsible for the design, whose execution would subsequently have been largely left by the master to his assistants—must be rejected in the strongest terms. Still less well founded is the thesis of those (Weinberger, Paatz) who assign the Florentine works to one pupil of A. and the Roman works to another, both working under A.’s direction. That the master made use of assistants is beyond doubt, especially for works of greater size, such as the tabernacles of S. Paolo and S. Cecilia and the tomb of Guglielmo di Braye. But these are generally secondary parts, which have little effect on the stylistic appearance of the Arnolfian works; all of them speak a well-defined and homogeneous language.
The problem of A. as an architect is still vigorously debated. Vasari had attributed to him in Florence, besides the cathedral, the third circuit of the walls, the ancient loggia of Orsammichele, later destroyed, the Loggia de' Lanzi and Piazza della Signoria, the three chapels of the choir of the Badia, the design of the church and the first cloisters of S. Croce, the marble facing of the Baptistery, and the Palazzo Vecchio; in addition, numerous buildings in the surrounding area, including houses, villas, and the castles of S. Giovanni Val d'Arno and Castel Franco. This list was subsequently expanded by the addition of the churches of S. Maria Maggiore and S. Remigio, the Bigallo, and the Trinità. Against this excessive extension of the scope of A.’s architectural activity, modern criticism reacted, ultimately restricting the authorship of A. the architect to the cathedral of Florence alone. More recently, however, certain critics have again sought to enlarge the list of buildings executed or designed by A., including (Paatz) the Badia (1284–1310) and the church of S. Croce (1294–95 ff.), as well as the Palazzo Vecchio, founded in 1298.
Constant elements of A.’s art are adherence to the stylistic modes of Nicola Pisano and the broad predominance of suggestions drawn from the classical figurative world; in comparison with these, the affinities with French Gothic art, unduly emphasized by certain critics (Keller), prove insignificant. On the other hand, the monument to Annibaldi and the ciborium of S. Paolo undeniably preserve reminiscences of the Campanian pulpits, especially in the relationship between the figures and the mosaic background, as well as the affinity of the Carlo d'Angiò with a headless statue of the thirteenth century from the Gate of Capua, now in that city’s museum. For this reason Salmi reasonably, and not without foundation, posits a sojourn by A. in southern Italy before 1276.
Whereas in A.’s architectural works (the ciboria of S. Paolo and S. Cecilia in Rome and the Florentine Cathedral) there is a progressive accentuation of Romanesque forms and a simultaneous weakening of Gothic tension, in the sculptures the firm and solid plastic compactness of the youthful works is gently animated and relaxed in the later ones. These differences are nevertheless slight and scarcely evident, occurring within a line of development that is essentially constant and little varied, characterized by a solemn and majestic conception of structure, an acute sense of the essential in circumscribing the plastic organism within clear, broad, and synthetic contours, and grave, strong, solemn psychological qualities. — Vedi Tavy. I-II.