Biography

Andrea Riccio (Andrea Briosco), Italian sculptor, active in and around Padua, where he was probably trained by Bartolommeo Bellano, who in turn is assumed to have been one of Donatello's assistants. His nickname means "curly head".

Riccio was a virtuoso bronze-worker and his masterpiece is the great bronze Easter candlestick in the Santo (Sant'Antonio) at Padua (1505-16), which with its relief scenes of classically draped figures, its satyrs, sphinxes, and decorative conceits, is an endlessly inventive work.

He is best known, however, for his small bronze figures, which are done in an antique manner and greatly appealed to humanist circles in Padua and Venice (he was on intimate terms with leading scholars). They were much imitated, but works from Riccio's own hand are distinguished by a vivacity and delicacy of surface that none of his rivals could match.