BEGARELLI, Antonio
(b. ca. 1499, Modena, d. 1565, Modena)

The Adoration of the Shepherds

1526-27
Terracotta
Cathedral, Modena

The impact of Raphael on the artistic life of his time was such that sculptors introduced references to his work. Begarelli, a modeller in clay, attains Raphaelesque accents in his Madonnas, in which the spirit of Correggio is also present, and in the naturalistic frieze of the Adoration of the Shepherds in Modena Cathedral. Here it is the shadow of Raphael which contributes a grain of classicism to a resolutely naturalistic art.