Emperor Antoninus Pius 1519–1524 Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi) Italian Working almost exclusively for the members of the Gonzaga family, frequently at their court in Mantua, Antico earned his nickname by specializing in interpretations of antique Greek and Roman sculpture. Trips to Rome on Gonzaga business afforded him occasions to see the latest discoveries of antiquities, which his patrons avidly collected; helping to acquire and repair those statues and busts gave the sculptor concrete knowledge of ancient art. His precise and elegant style owed much to the care with which he cast an
Emperor Antoninus Pius 1519–1524 Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi) Italian Working almost exclusively for the members of the Gonzaga family, frequently at their court in Mantua, Antico earned his nickname by specializing in interpretations of antique Greek and Roman sculpture. Trips to Rome on Gonzaga business afforded him occasions to see the latest discoveries of antiquities, which his patrons avidly collected; helping to acquire and repair those statues and busts gave the sculptor concrete knowledge of ancient art. His precise and elegant style owed much to the care with which he cast and chased his bronzes; this technical refinement of his work, as much as its evocation of the ancient world, appealed to generations of exacting patrons among the Gonzaga, from Gianfrancesco, to Francesco II and his famous wife Isabella d’Este, to Federico appears to have owned five busts by Antico dating between 1519 and 1522: Cleopatra (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Bacchus, Ariadne (both, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), Alexander (Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna), and Antoninus Pius, the present work. The subsequent Gonzaga ruler, her son Federico II (1500?–?1540), owned a second, later, bust by Antico of Antoninus Pius and one of his wife, Faustina, thought to be those now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Federico felt an affinity for this emperor and his wife and apparently had images of them integrated into the decorative scheme of the Sala di Troia in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua.[1] Renaissance rulers frequently displayed busts of ancient leaders with whose virtues they wished to associate themselves. Astrologer Luca Gauricus called Federico a second Alexander and compared his master with other notables from Roman history.[2] Emperor Antoninus, whose sobriquet "Pius" was conferred on him by the Roman Senate in recognition of his righteousness, was known for high personal standards and was thus an appropriate exemplar for Federico. Furthermore, "Scriptore
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