The Politics of the Tunic in Antelami's Deposition in Parma

Abstract

An inscription on the marble Deposition relief (Fig. 1) now lodged in the western wall of the south transept of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Parma reads, on the left: “In the second month of the year 1178 the sculptor completed it [the work]”; on the right: “This sculptor was Benedict known as Antelami.” Thus, we are fortunate to have a date and the name of the sculptor. Other than an inscription naming Benedict on the Parma baptistery, all other references to the sculptor (also architect) in which he is named Benedetto degli Antelami are sixteenth century at the earliest. We have no information as to his biography, or indeed the degree to which these and other works attributed to him can be understood as the work of one person. But in the beginning of the nineteenth century some writers began making Benedetto Antelami famous by pronouncing him the precursor of Giovanni Pisano, who led the way to the work of the great Italian Renaissance sculptors.