Tribolo giovane e le figure 'meravigliose' di San Petronio

A thorough re-reading of documents casts light on the Florentine sculptor Niccolò's involvment with work for San Petronio in Bologna. Having just completed Peruzzi's project for the tomb of Pope Hadrian VI in Santa Maria dell'Anima, Rom, the artist was hired thanks to the intervention of the Bolognese gentleman Bartolomeo Barbazza, and perhaps of Sebastiano Serlio. Between June 1525 and August 1527, heading a team of Tuscans (Simone Cioli and Antonio di Giovanni, called Solosmeo, both from Settignano), Niccolò earned a prominent role within the accumulation of cultures that defined the project for the secondary doors of the church, designing and partly executing nine Biblical stories, five Angels, three Sybils, and the monumental Virgin over the right door. Without effacing his own Florentine training, Tribolo here stands out for his clear albeit unprecedented borrowings from Raphael, and for a sustained classicism derived from Andrea Sansovino, on whose example the artist grafted his recent experiences with ancient statuary.