CARADOSSO. - Cristoforo Foppa, called il C., was a goldsmith, medallist and sculptor. Born at Mondonico in Brianza c. 1452, died in 1527 probably in Rome, where he carried out his earliest activity. Indeed, the bronze doors of the reliquary of the chains of St. Peter (S. Pietro in Vincoli), datable to 1477, are attributed to him.

In Milan, where he had gone in 1480 into the service of Ludovico il Moro, he executed the sculptural decorations of Bramante's baptistery of S. Satiro. After some journeys to other Italian cities, undertaken in search of ancient works, he was in 1503 asked by Milan for some advice concerning a door of the Cathedral. To this same period belong the plaquettes of the Dreyfuss and Piot collections derived from the bas-reliefs of an inkstand that he had carved (1504) for Isabella d'Este, and in which the energy of the modelling recalls Luca Signorelli. After the fall of Ludovico il Moro (1499), the C. went to Rome, where he devoted himself to the art of the goldsmith (the tiara of Julius II, lost at the end of the eighteenth century and of which reproductions exist) and of the medal, during the pontificates of Julius II, Leo X, Adrian VI, Clement VII: particularly important are the medal of Julius II and the commemorative one of Bramante, which bears the effigy of the architect and, on the reverse, his project for S. Pietro; these works were conceived in vigorous forms adhering, but in a spontaneous and personal manner, to classical models; he won the praise and esteem of his contemporaries, among whom Sabba Castiglioni and Benvenuto Cellini were especially enthusiastic.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: A. Tesco, Introductio in Chaldaicam linguam, syriacam atque decem aliis linguis, Pavia 1539, pp. 182-83 (interesting notices); F. Bonanni, Numismata pontificum Romanorum a tempore pont. Martini V usque ad annum MDCXCIX. I, Rome 1690, p. 163; B. Cellini, Trattato dell'oreficeria, Florence 1857; E. Müntz, L'Atelier monétaire de Rome, in Révue numismatique, 2 (1884), p. 313 ff.; A. Venturi, Le primizie del C. in Roma, in L'arte, 6 (1903), p. 1-6; L. Forno, s. v. in Biographical Dictionary of Medallist. I, London 1904, pp. 345-50 (with bibl.); A. Riccoboni, Roma nell'arte - La scultura nell'evo moderno dal Quattrocento ad oggi, Rome 1942, pp. 37-39.

Luisa Marzoli Fesilkenia

@incollection{ec3_caradosso, author = {Marzoli, Feslikenian Luisa}, title = {Caradosso}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {741}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/caradosso} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry