Dello Delli pittore e scultore fiorentino.
Spunti attributivi e spigolature
d’archivio
David Lucidi
This article regards Daniello di Niccolò Delli, well-known as Dello Delli (Florence, 1403 – Spain, post 1466?).
It focuses on the artist’s first activity, that is the beginning of his career in Florence in the early 1420s, his stay in Siena and Venice between 1425 and 1430, and his return in Florence before leaving for the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile at the end of 1433. In Spain, he worked only as a painter, while in the first Florentine phase he was known as a versatile artist, expert in fresco painting, bronze casting and specialized in terracotta sculpture. A reanalysis of the works generally referred to him in Florence, has allowed to enrich Dello’s catalog with a new terracotta statue of Saint Bishop to be connected to the works that Vasari remembered having been modeled by Dello Delli for the Florentine church of Sant’Egidio. At the same time, a reanalysis of the historical and documentary sources, along with other documents attesting the presence of the artist in the sculptural decoration of the cathedral of Barcelona in January 1434, has allowed to trace a relationship of friendship and collaboration with the Florentine sculptor Giuliano di Nofri, Ghiberti’s pupil, active in Barcelona since 1431. New documents found in the State Archives of Florence have allowed to identify a new clue to reconstruct the biography of Dello Delli who, in the months preceding his departure for Spain, in a precarious economic situation, seem to have been involved also in textile trade.