MONTELUPO, Baccio da

Italian sculptor and architect, father of Raffaello da Montelupo. In his Lives, Giorgio Vasari dedicates chapters to this sculptor and calls him "a rare and excellent master". While we know little of his early career, Vasari further notes that Baccio worked with Michelangelo at Lorenzo de' Medici's Giardino di San Marco in Florence.

Although Baccio da Montelupo's first recorded work is a terracotta Pietà of 1495, the success of his wooden crucifix (1496) in San Marco, Florence, led to his workshop specializing in the production of wood corpora. Several notable large-scale examples of his work survive including a corpus in Santa Maria Novella, Florence and SS. Flora e Lucilla in Arezzo.

In 1515 Baccio da Montelupo completed his finest sculpture, the bronze statue of St John the Evangelist for Orsanmichele, Florence, made in competition for the Arte dei Linaioli (GuildGLOSSARYAn association of the masters of a particular craft, trade or profession (painters, goldsmiths, surgeons, and so on) set up to protect its members' rights and interests. Such guilds existed in virtually every European city in the 16th century. The guild also monitored standards of work, acted as a court for those who brought their trade into disrepute, and provided assistance to members in need. of Linen Merchants). It was placed in a tabernacleGLOSSARYa small canopied recess or container in which the Eucharist or a holy relic is kept. in the outer wall of the church. Recently it was removed from its original place for