Biography

Italian goldsmith. His earliest documented work dates from 1286, when together with his brother Tallino he made a chalice (Museo Diocesano, Pistoia), for the Opera di San Jacopo. The following year the Opera di San Jacopo commissioned a silver retable, decorated with high reliefs of the Virgin and Child Enthroned and the Twelve Apostles, for the altar of San Jacopo in Pistoia Cathedral. This retable was restored in March-April 1293 and again in 1314. In 1316 it was enlarged, and the added silver antependium was signed ANDREA DI JACOPO D'OGNABENE, although it is unclear whether Andrea was the author of both the antependium and the earlier retable. Most scholars consider the two parts to be stylistically distinct and thus by two different artists. However, it is also proposed that Andrea was responsible for both the retable of 1287 and the antependium of 1316, and his work on the altar included the fifteen large circular and four quadrilobed enamels decorating the antependium, and the restoration in 1314 of two Apostles on the retable.

A number of other works have been attributed to Andrea, although none is unanimously accepted as autograph. Five silver-gilt and enamel plaques from the reliquary of the Holy Girdle (c. 1290s; Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa) have been associated with him. The cross of Convalle (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Lucca), datable c. 1317, is usually considered a product of Andrea's artistic maturity. The cross of Lucchio (San Pietro, Lucca) is also attributed to him, as is the cross of Santa Maria Albiano (Santa Maria, Lucca). The chalice of the Umiliati (Museo Civico, Pistoia) is also a work by Andrea.