Niccolò dell'Arca

The Burgundian elements in his sculpture are attributed by some art historians to his presumed participation in the triumphal arch of the Castel Nuovo in Naples during the 1450s (where he would have known the Catalan sculptor Guillem Sagrera and would be influenced by his style).

This probably refers to the “Compianto sul Cristo morto”, terracotta group in the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna (also mentioned in a Bull of 1464 by Pope Paul II).

In 1469 he got the commission of an ambitious new addition on the Arca di San Domenico: a spiral superstructure and several free-standing figures on top of the sarcophagus.

Niccolò dell’Arca added an elaborate spire with an impressive statue of “God the Father” on top of a candelabrum, held by two putti and four dolphins, all covered with festoons with fruit.

On the cornice at its base is in the middle a small Pietà, flanked by two angels, while on the four corners stand the four Evangelists in oriental dress.

In the marked drapery folds is seen the influence of Jacopo della Quercia and also traces of the dynamic naturalism of his contemporary Andrea del Verrocchio.