Matteo Civitali

Matteo Civitali (1436-1502) was an Italian sculptor and architect, painter and engineer, who was a leading artistic personality of the Early Renaissance in Lucca, where he was born and where most of his work remains. He was trained in Florence, where Antonio Rossellino and Mino da Fiesole influenced his mature style. He is known to have sculpted statues of Adam, Eve, Abraham, Saints Zacchariah and Elizabeth, and others for the chapel of San Giovanni Battista in Genoa. He is mentioned with the name of Matteo Civitali by Vasari in his biography of Jacopo della Quercia, and appears to have taken up the art of sculpture at the age of 40 years, after years of practicing as a "barber" (surgeon).

His free-standing chapel, the "tempietto", built in 1484 to enshrine the Holy Face of Lucca, stands in the transept of the Cathedral of San Martino, Lucca. The Duomo contains a virtual anthology of Matteo's sculpture.

References

• "Matteo Civitali and his time" Exhibition, Villa Guinigi, Lucca, 2004.
• Harms, Martina, Matteo Civitali, Bildhauer der Fruhrenaissance in Lucca (Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, 1) Munich: Rhema-Verlag, 1995. ISBN 3-930454-00-9. Comprehensive monograph.
• Soprani, Raffaello (1769). Carlo Giuseppe Ratti (ed.). Delle vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti genovesi; Tomo secundo scritto da Carlo Giuseppe Ratti. Stamperia Casamara in Genoa, dalle Cinque Lampadi, con licenza de Superiori; Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Feb 2, 2007. pp. pages 373-374. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)