PROSPERO ANTICHI, called Il Bresciano. - Sculptor, b. in Brescia, active in Rome from c. 1580, d. there in 1599.

He belongs to the group of Lombard artists who cooperated, under the pontificates of Gregory XIII and Sixtus V, in the renewal of the city, prolonging in sculpture a mannerism both eclectic and academic, destined to exhaust itself in tired and monotonous forms, before the Berninian renewal. Of the few surviving works (numerous are those in stucco, destroyed) one of the best is the Nativity scene of the Sistine Chapel in St. Mary Major, in which P. still appears faithful to the Sansovinesque tradition and "derives pictorial effects in the Lombard manner from the landscape background" (Venturi); the best known is the colossal, very clumsy statue of Moses for the Mostra dell'Acqua Felice, in which Michelangiolism resolves itself into a vacuous and theatrical search for grandeur. Other works: The tomb of Gregory XIII in the Vatican Basilica and the models of the four lions at the base of the obelisk of St. Peter's.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: G. De Nicola, Antichi P., in Thieme-Becker, I, p. 555; G. Baglione, Le vite dei pittori, scultori, ecc., Rome 1642, p. 42; Venturi, X, III, Milan 1937, p. 574.

Nolfo di Carpegna

@incollection{ec10_prospero_antichi_detto_il_bres, author = {Di, Carpegna Nolfo}, title = {Prospero Antichi, detto il bresciano}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {159}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/prospero-antichi-detto-il-bresciano} }

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Prospero Antichi, called Il Bresciano

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