CIVITALE. - Family of artists. MATTEO, sculptor and architect, b. at Lucca on June 5, 1436; d. there on Oct. 12, 1501. He completed his apprenticeship in Florence, almost certainly with Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino, with the latter of whom he long maintained ties of friendship: in fact in 1468 C. appraised at Pistoia the monument to Filippo Lazzeri commissioned from Bernardo and executed by Antonio Rossellino, while Antonio Rossellino in turn appraised the monument to the jurist and diplomat Pietro da Noceto (d. in 1467) executed in 1472 by C. for the cathedral of Lucca and which constitutes the first important work of the Lucchese sculptor.
Between 1473 and 1478 he executed the tabernacle of the Sacrament, now dismembered, of which two Adoring Angels remain at Lucca, while the ciborium is in London (in the Victoria and Albert Museum), and the famous high relief with the Faith, which probably formed part of it, is preserved in Florence (in the Bargello museum). Of 1479 is the monument to Dom. Bertini, apostolic abbreviator, who commissioned from C. the little temple of the Volto Santo and the statue of St. Sebastian, likewise in the cathedral of Lucca, executed between 1472 and 1484. Of the same year are the altar of St. Regulus (cathedral of Lucca) and the sepulchral monument of Sts. Pellegrino and Bianco, partly reworked, in the sanctuary of St. Pellegrino on the Tuscan-Emilian mountain. The Opera della primaziale of Pisa commissioned from him in 1487 twenty-two marble altars for the cathedral, of which only a few candelabra pillars remain: the work was probably not executed, since already in 1489 C. was working on the tabernacle for the church of St. Frediano in Lucca, converted into a baptismal font in 1508, and in 1490 he executed the tomb of St. Romano in the church of the same name in Lucca, likewise dismembered and reworked. In this period fall some works and projects of architectural works, such as the bridge over the Serchio at Moriano (1490), now destroyed, and the plans for the fortifications of the city of Lucca (1491). For the cathedral of Lucca he still executed a marble pulpit (1494) and two stoups for holy water (1498), then he went to Genoa where for the chapel of St. John in the cathedral he carved the six statues of Adam, Eve, Habakkuk, Isaiah, Zechariah and Elizabeth (c. 1499) and a group of St. George and the dragon, commissioned from him by the Protectors of the Banco di S. Giorgio and demolished during the revolution of 1797. The Christ in Piety of the church of Lammari (Lucca) is the last work of C. A most prolific and somewhat monotonous artist, he was nevertheless one of the most original interpreters of the art of Bernardo Rossellino: his sculpture is distinguished by a clean, sharp, precise manner even if not devoid of a certain rigidity. A sincere and delicate religious feeling has made some of his figurations famous. He had a most refined architectural sensibility and taste for decoration, and to the Genoese statues he gave, quite precociously, a sixteenth-century grandeur. He also had the merit of introducing the art of printing into Lucca.
Bibliography5 works
Enzo Carli
His son NICOLAO, b. in 1482, d. in 1560, collaborated with his father, active at Pietrasanta and at Lucca, and carved the tabernacle in the church of the Servi. With his son VINCENZO he carved the holy water stoup and the marble choir lofts for the church of St. Paolino in Lucca. He built some fine palaces at Lucca such as that of the Cassa di risparmio and that of the Bernardini family: others are attributed to him, such as the Palazzo Cenami and the Palazzo Orsetti.
Enzo Carli