( fl 1286-c. 1317). Italian goldsmith. His earliest documented work dates from 1286, when together with his brother Tallino he made a chalice, identified by Gai (1988) with the chalice of S Atto (Pistoia, Mus. Dioc.), for the Opera di S Jacopo; he was paid 48 lire for this work on 29 April 1286. The following year the Opera di S Jacopo commissioned a silver retable, decorated with high reliefs of the Virgin and Child Enthroned and the Twelve Apostles, for the altar of S Jacopo in Pistoia Cathedral. This retable was restored in March-April 1293 and again in 1314. In 1316 it was enlarged, and the added silver antependium was signed ANDREA DI JACOPO D'OGNABENE, although it is unclear whether Andrea was the author of both the antependium and the earlier retable. Most scholars consider the two parts to be stylistically distinct and thus by two different artists. Ragghianti, however, gave the authorship of both parts to another goldsmith, whom he identified as the Master of Convalle, named after the processional cross from SS Simone e Guida at Convalle, near Lucca (see below). He believed that Andrea di Jacopo merely assembled the work executed by others. Gai (1984), on the other hand, proposed that Andrea was responsible for both the retable of 1287 and the antependium of 1316, also suggesting that Andrea's work on the altar included the fifteen large circular and four quadrilobed enamels decorating the antependium, and the restoration in 1314 of two Apostles on the retable. A number of other works have been attributed to Andrea, although none is unanimously accepted as autograph. Five silver-gilt and enamel plaques from the reliquary of the Holy Girdle (c. 1290s; Pisa, Mus. N. S Matteo) have been associated with him. The cross of Convalle (Lucca, Mus. & Pin. N.), datable c. 1317, is usually considered a product of Andrea's artistic maturity. The cross of Lucchio (Lucca, S Pietro) is also attributed to him, as is the cross of S Maria Albiano (Lucca, S Maria). Gai (1988) also identified Andrea as the author of the chalice of the Umiliati (Pistoia, Mus. Civ.).
See the Abbreviations for further details.
