A BRONZE FIGURE OF THE SPINARIO

Little is known about the early life of Severo di Domenico Calzetta - popularly known as Severo da Ravenna - despite the efforts of numerous scholars over the past few decades (for the most recent essay on the sculptor see Warren., op. cit.). He was born in either Ravenna or Ferrara to a sculptor father and may have trained with Pietro Lombardo in his early years. By 1500 he is recorded as being in Padua but he appears to have returned to Ravenna around 1510 and spent the remainder of his working life there.

The present figure is cast after an antique bronze statue known since at least the 12th century when it was recorded as being outside the Lateran Palace. Today it is housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. It was particularly popular in the early Renaissance and was often copied, sometimes in reverse as is seen here. The present cast appears to have come from the same mould as an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (illustrated in Radcliffe, loc. cit.), which is distinctive for the delicate modelling of the hands. That bronze is described as 'By Severo da Ravenna', however it is known that Severo's workshop was extensive, and it is possible that the present bronze was cast by one of the other sculptors working in the foundry.