BAROCCI, AMBROCIO, known as AMBROCIO DA MILANO. — Sculptor, son of Antonio, trained in the workshop in Ferrara run by the Mantuan Albertino de' Rasconi. In 1472 in Urbino, he carved friezes for doors and windows of the Ducal Palace, based on designs by Laurana; in 1475, in collaboration with Rossellino, he worked in S. Giorgio in Ferrara on the tomb of Lorenzo Rovella (signed); from 1481 to 1484 he was employed at the construction of the bell tower of S. Maria della Quercia near Viterbo; in 1491 he collaborated with Pippo da Firenze on the design of the portico of the Spoleto cathedral; in 1516 he worked in Todi. He reworked Tuscan and Lombard elements, blending them with a predominantly decorative tendency.
BIBL.: Anon., s.V. in Thieme-Becker, I, pp. 392-93 (with bibliography); A. Venturi, Storia dell’arte italiana, VI, Milan 1908, pp. 620-21. For the works at S. Maria della Quercia in Viterbo cf. C. Pinzi, Memorie e documenti inediti sulla basilica di S. Maria della Quercia, in Archivio stor. dell’arte, 3 (1890), pp. 300-32. Elsa Gerlini