Abstract
Abstract Between the 15th and 16th centuries, terracotta sculpture played a crucial role in the development and dissemination of Renaissance art in Northern Italy. Scholars, however, have assessed its relevance only in the last decades, mostly relying on a local and obsolete bibliography: on the whole, knowledge on this topic remains scattered and fragmentary. By contrast, as a multifaceted medium, terracotta fostered not only new interplay among the arts, but also technical innovations and cultural transfers, activating the creativity of the artists in new directions and radically changing the relationship between sculpture and its public. In the area defined by the Alps and the Apennines, terracotta developed as an interconnected and synchronic artistic phenomenon. From celebrated Lamentations in the churches of Emilia, to architectural friezes decorating countless palaces in Lombardy, it is safe to say that coroplasty is part and parcel of the identity of these Italian regions, in which clay – reaching back to the first anthropization – has always represented a material element of civilization itself: from pottery to bricks, to works of art. Based at the Universities of Trento and Bologna, the investigators of the present proposal are leading scholars in the field of Renaissance terracotta, both in terms of publications, international conferences and exhibitions, but also research projects for grants and doctoral fellowships. Building on these experiences and knowledge, the project addresses Renaissance terracotta sculpture of Northern Italy in a global and interdisciplinary perspective. The aim of this proposal is a methodical cataloguing of terracotta works in Northern Italy from the 15th and 16th century, through a digital database. Two specifically hired post-doc researchers will collect information through bibliographic and on-site research, entering their data into the database. This mapping phase will serve as a starting point for a new critical analysis of terracotta sculpture as an historical, technological, social, and – in a broader sense – cultural phenomenon. This innovative approach will result in an open-access volume of collected essays addressing this topic from several points of view. Beyond research and academia, the C.RE.TE. database will increase general awareness of this neglected heritage, fostering its conservation, accessibility, and enhancement. C.RE.TE. project will be active on an international level, collaborating with some of the most prestigious museums preserving masterpieces of Northern Italian terracotta sculpture, such as the Museo del Bargello in Florence, the Bode-Museum in Berlin, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Results achieved
The C.RE.TE project has studied Renaissance terracotta sculpture in northern Italy, with particular reference to the present-day regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto. The main objective was to produce a comprehensive and up-to-date open-access digital catalogue dedicated to 15th- and 16th-century works, serving as a scholarly tool for the study of artistic practices, production networks, the circulation of works and the regional characteristics of this production. The digital catalogue currently comprises almost two thousand works, each accompanied by scholarly entries, images, technical data and an up-to-date bibliography. It integrates, within the same platform, advanced search tools, dynamic visualisations, interactive maps and a historical atlas, enabling searches by artist, workshop, chronology, type, provenance and location. It includes exclusively figurative terracotta works produced for or intended for the major artistic centres of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto between the early 15th century and the end of the 16th century, excluding architectural elements lacking figurative decoration. The metadata model was developed on the basis of the ICCD, BeWeb and Fondazione Zeri standards, adapting them to the specific requirements of Renaissance terracotta sculpture. The schema enables the recording of information on attributions, techniques, polychromy, provenance, conservation history, restorations, relationships between works and bibliography, thereby facilitating comparative analyses and studies on the production and dissemination of workshops. The platform is designed as a dynamic and updatable tool, open to the integration of new attributions, discoveries and bibliographical updates. Future developments include extending the catalogue to other parts of northern Italy, in particular Piedmont and other areas of the Po Valley, and enhancing the digital analysis tools. Activities carried out: • Poster: ‘An Open Access Catalogue for Renaissance Terracotta Sculpture in Northern Italy’, Digital Heritage Congress & Expo, Siena, 8–12 September 2025. • Presentation of the book ‘Il fuoco sacro della terracotta’ by Marco Scansani, Incontri in Biblioteca, Bologna, 27 February 2025. • Conference ‘Between art and industry: the serial nature of sculpture in the early Renaissance’, Trento, 6–7 November 2024. Publications: • Marco Scansani, Il fuoco sacro della terracotta. Giovanni de Fondulis tra Lombardia e Veneto, Tre Lune, 2024. • Manuele Veggi et al., An Open Access Catalogue for Renaissance Terracotta Sculpture in Northern Italy, Proceedings of the Digital Heritage Congress & Expo, 2025. • Aldo Galli, Beatrice Rosa, Marco Scansani (eds.), Tra arte e industria. La serialità della scultura nel Rinascimento, Viella, 2026. A further planned outcome is the publication of an additional volume bringing together various contributions organised by individual regional productions and specific types of objects addressed in the project.Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Andrea Bacchi
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento delle Arti
Coordinatore:
Università degli Studi di Trento(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 94.794,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
30/11/2023
Data di fine:
29/11/2025
