Antonio Begarelli

[3] Begarelli worked chiefly in Modena, where many churches are decorated with his sculptures in terra-cotta; and in his later years also at Parma.

These are free standing figures, nearly life-size, grouped together above altars in the chapels and apparently intended to replace pictures.

This peculiar adaptation of sculpture was first used in Modena by Guido Mazzoni, called II Modanino, a highly gifted realist artist.

In the left apse of the Church of San Francesco there is a large terracotta statuary group of thirteen statues depicting a Deposition from the Cross from 1531, which is considered to be Begarelli’s masterpiece.

[4] Scholars hold widely varying opinions regarding a tradition that asserts that Begarelli was associated and corroborated with Correggio.