Niccolò dell’Arca was an Italian Early Renaissance sculptor. He is also known under the names Niccolò da Ragusa, Niccolò da Bari and Niccolò d'Antonio d'Apulia. The surname “dell’Arca” refers to his contribution to the Arca di San Domenico. The place and the year of his birth are not certain. He was probably born in Apulia, perhaps in Bari, and then most likely lived for some time in Dalmatia. According to C. Gnudi he received training there by the Dalmatian sculptor Giorgio da Sebenico. The Burgundian elements in his sculpture are attributed by some art historians to his presumed participation in the triumphal arch of the Castel Nuovo in Naples during the 1450s. Others, rejecting his training in Naples, contend instead that he travelled to France in the late 1460s. According to them, his further training then allegedly took place in Siena, influenced by the works of Jacopo della Quercia and Donatello. He was mentioned for the first timein September 1462 in Bologna as Maestro Nicolò da Puglia, a “master of terracotta figures”. This probably refers to the “Compianto sul Cristo morto”, terracotta group in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna. A life-size group of six separate figures stand lamenting in a semicircle around the dead Christ in a lying posture. The dramatic pathos, the expressions of grief and torment of the figures is intensified by the realism of their dramatic facial details. However the date of this innovative contribution to Renaissance sculpture is uncertain. Instead of c. 1460, some date it between 1485 and 1490. In 1469 he got the commission of an ambitious new addition on the Arca di San Domenico: a spiral superstructure and several free-standing figures on top of the sarcophagus. This sarcophagus with the remains of Saint Dominic had been sculpted two centuries before by Nicola Pisano and his workshop. It had been completed by lapo, Arnolfo di Cambio and fra Guglielmo Agnelli. Niccolò dell’Arca added an elaborate spire with an impressive statue of “God the Father” on top of a candelabrum, held by two putti and four dolphins, all covered with festoons with fruit. On the cornice at its base is in the middle a small Pietà, flanked by two angels, while on the four corners stand the four Evangelists in oriental dress. The lower part of the superstructure is surrounded by free-standing figures: the Patron Saints of Bologna, San Petronio, Saint Dominic and Saint Florian. On the back stand St Anne, St John the Baptist, San Procolo and San Vitale. Niccolò also added the Candlestick-holding Angel on the left side of the altar slab. Niccolò dell’Arca worked on this masterpiece between 1469 and 1473, leaving it unfinished. He probably continued intermittently at it until his death. Art critics see in this masterpiece a blend of influences: Burgundian, Florentine and non-Tuscan. The way these statuettes express their emotions and the patterns in their dresses and hair evoke the style of Jacopo della Quercia. Some other important works include the terracotta bust of Saint Dominic , a marble statue of St. John the Baptist and the terracotta figure of Saint Monica . Also notable is the terracotta high relief of Madonna di Piazza on the wall of the Palazzo Comunale in Bologna. In the marked drapery folds is seen the influence of Jacopo della Quercia and also traces of the dynamic naturalism of his contemporary Andrea del Verrocchio.
