RICCIO, Andrea
(b. 1470, Trento, d. 1532, Padova)

Paschal candlestick

1507-16
Bronze, height 392 cm
Basilica di Sant'Antonio, Padua

In March 1507, the month he finished the reliefs for the choir of the Santo in Padua, Riccio received another commission from the same church for the work which is his masterpiece, a monumental bronze Paschal candlestick. It was not completed until 1516, after interruptions caused by the war of the League of Cambrai. Riccio designed it as a steeply tapering pyramidal pedestal of two main figurated zones - each with a plinth decorated with smaller reliefs, as well as engaged statuettes projecting diagonally from the corners - while a cylindrical form prevails above, with two superimposed drums intercalated with baluster shapes, again with multiple reliefs, ornaments and addorsed statuettes. The whole is capped with a gadrooned drip-pan. It is thus divided into eight principal zones, incorporating an amazing compendium of a few Christian narrative and allegorical themes interspersed with myriad mythological figures, and, what is most remarkable in such a sacred context, its profile is enlivened with such pagan and suggestive creatures as sphinxes, satyrs, griffins and centaurs.

The incorporation of pagan motifs in the work is explained by the Neo-Platonic, humanist environment of the university town of Padua in which it was conceived: the commission was proposed by a philosopher, Giambattista Leone, who owned Riccio's drawing for it and persuaded Antonio Trombetta (d. 1518), the abbot of the adjacent monastery, to countenance its totally unorthodox iconography.

Riccio's Paschal candlestick is one of the most ingeniously composed and intellectually enigmatic artistic complexes of all time. It is not as widely known as it deserves, nor has it been properly studied, probably just because of a traditional prejudice that bronze artefacts, because they have a function, do not qualify as works of 'fine art'. With its multiplicity of reliefs, figures and ornamental motifs, the candlestick also provides the touchstone for attributing to Riccio's hand a good number of independent and otherwise undocumented statuettes, plaquettes and artefacts.