CARADOSSO. – Cristoforo Foppa, called C., was a goldsmith, medallist, and sculptor. Born at Mondonico in Brianza around 1452, he died in 1527, probably in Rome, where he carried out his first activity. In fact, the bronze doors of the reliquary of the chains of s. Pietro (S. Pietro in Vincoli), datable to 1477, are attributed to him.
In Milan, where he had gone in 1480 to serve Ludovico il Moro, he executed the sculptural decorations of the Bramantesque baptistery of S. Satiro. After several journeys to other Italian cities, undertaken in search of ancient works, in 1503 he was summoned to Milan to give advice concerning a door of the Duomo. The plaquettes in the Dreyfuss and Piot collections also belong to this same period; they were made from the reliefs of an inkstand that he had sculpted (1504) for Isabella d’Este, and in them the energy of the modelling recalls Luca Signorelli. After the fall of Ludovico il Moro (1499), C. went to Rome, where he devoted himself to the art of goldsmithing (the tiara of Giulio II, which was lost at the end of the eighteenth century and of which reproductions exist) and to medal-making, during the pontificates of Giulio II, Leone X, Adriano VI, and Clemente VII. Particularly important are the medal of Giulio II and the commemorative medal of Bramante, which bears the architect’s effigy and, on the reverse, his design for S. Pietro. These works were conceived in vigorous forms that adhered, yet spontaneously and personally, to classical models; they earned him the praise and esteem of his contemporaries, among whom Sabba Castiglioni and Benvenuto Cellini were especially enthusiastic.
Luisa Marzoli Fesilkenia