Jacopo della Pila

Jacopo della Pila was an Italian Early Renaissance sculptor.

Biography

No documentary sources have survived regarding the early life of Jacopo della Pila, one of the most important Italian sculptors of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, except that he undoubtedly had Milanese origins. His activity is documented in the Kingdom of Naples between 1471 and 1502, after a probable Roman education. To date, nothing is known of any work della Pila conducted in his homeland prior to his move to Naples. He was part of that fervent and populous colony of Lombard sculptors who settled in Naples in the second half of the fifteenth century, within which other notable personalities stand out such as Domenico Gagini, Pietro di Martino from Milan, Francesco di Cristofano from Milan, Tommaso Malvito from Como and his son Giovan Tommaso Malvito. The date of della Pila's death is unknown.

Artistic activity His first major work is the "Monumento funebre del vescovo Nicola Piscicelli" in the Salerno Cathedral, dated 1471, which already features a compositional scheme that the sculptor would replicate several times and which revived the fourteenth-century tradition, quite common in Neapolitan production of the period: a tomb resting on three small pillars supported by the three Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity), signs of the deceased's earthly merit, while on the coffin, three garlands surround Saint Matthew, the Madonna and Child, and Saint Mark

In 1473 the Lombard master was in the service of King Ferrante, for whom he executed some fountains (lost). The tombs of Garzia Cavaniglia and Antonio Carafa known as "il Malizia" for the Neapolitan churches of Church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi and Church of San Domenico Maggiore, as well as that of Diego I Cavaniglia in the Convent of San Francesco a Folloni, dated 1481, belong to the immediately following period. The date of construction of the tomb of Costantino Castriota in the Church of Santa Maria la Nova in Naples is uncertain, as is, also in 1481, the beautiful Eucharistic tabernacle in the chapel of Santa Barbara in Castel Nuovo, of a delicacy that would not have displeased even Domenico Gagini

In 1494, Niccolò di Alagno commissioned a tomb for the castle of Torre Annunziata, modeled on Pietro Brancaccio's tomb in the Church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo in Naples. This tomb, currently in its current state, features the typological variant of the absence of the Virtues and its placement within an architectural aedicule.

His interest in classical sculpture is evident in the tabernacle for the Cappella di Santa Barbara in Castel Nuovo, a work from the 1480s. Between 1492 and 1500, he created the "Tomba di Tommaso Brancaccio" in San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, repeating the scheme with the tomb held by the three Virtues

Major works Jacopo della Pila, Monumento di Antonio Carafa, detto Il Malizia, San Domenico Maggiore, Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, Naples

Tomb of Matteo Ferrillo, Santa Maria La Nova, Naples Virgin of the Annunciation, Ackland Art Museum Allegory of Temperance, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Eucharistic Tabernacle, Palatine Chapel of Castel Nuovo Madonna and Child, , Naples Allegory of Temperance (reworked as Faith), National Museum of San Martino, Naples Ferrante I of Aragon on Horseback, National Museum of San Martino, Naples Virgin Annunciate, National Museum of San Martino, Naples Saint John the Baptist, Royal Holy House of the Annunciation, Naples Funeral Monument of Nicola Piscicelli, Salerno Cathedral Annunciation, Diocesan Museum, Squillace (Catanzaro) Funeral Monument of Diego Cavaniglia, Church of San Francesco a Folloni, Avellino Funeral Monument of Tommaso Brancaccio, Church of San Domenico Maggiore, Chapel of San Domenico, Naples Funeral Monument of Antonio Malizia Carafa, Church of San Domenico Maggiore, Chapel of San Domenico, Naples Funeral Monument of Diomede Carafa, Church of San Domenico Maggiore, Chapel of San Domenico, Naples Funeral Monument of Pietro Brancaccio, Church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo, Naples