NICCOLÒ dell'ARCA. — Also called N. da Bari or N. d'Apulia after his birthplace. Italian sculptor, b. c. 1435 and d. in Bologna in 1494.
From 1469 to 1473 he worked on the Arca of S. Domenico (from which his nickname derives), adding to the pre-existing part by N. Pisano the frieze with the Evangelists, the Eternal Father, the Christ in the sarcophagus between two angels, and five saints. In this celebrated work, N. revives in a fantastic world expressions of Franco-Flemish art combined with effects of exquisitely Tuscan grace. Perhaps from 1474 is the terracotta bust depicting S. Domenico in the same Bolognese church, in which one can easily note a minutely descriptive character that finds correspondence in certain more naturalistic details of the Arca, while the colossal Madonna of Piazza, in the Palazzo Comunale of Bologna, dated 1478, bears witness to a new stylistic moment in N. with reflections of the art of Verrocchio. He executed, also in Bologna, with broad and balanced grandeur, the terracotta eagle for the portal of S. Giovanni in Monte, datable shortly before 1481.
1819
NICCOLÒ dell'ARCA — NICCOLÒ CUSANO
Masterpiece of N. is the terracotta group depicting the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, in the Bolognese church of S. Maria della Vita, which shows the influence of the Ferrarese art flourishing in Bologna with Cossa and Roberti in the last thirty years of the century. This influence is especially evident in the dramatic figures of the Maries and S. John, who pose revealing the most intense emotion while their garments are agitated by a violent storm. — See pl. CXV.