The picapedrers

In relation to the professional figures who work in plastic art in Sardinia, archival documents from the 17th and 18th centuries distinguish between the 'sculptor' (or 'sculptor'), who is paid for the execution of wooden statues, and the 'picapedrer' (or 'pedapiquer'), who receives commissions for works mainly of architectural ornamentation.

These operators, sometimes also referred to as “brañiles”, are masterminds masons and stonemasons who continue the Sardinian-Hispanic late Gothic tradition and exponents of a non-classical local culture imbued with popular moods that finds its most congenious expression in the carving of living stone.

The carving, created with greater attention to the overall effect than to the details, draws on the motifs of the classical, Byzantine and medieval repertoire with great combinatorial freedom and finds its natural application in capitals, underarms, pilasters and peducci, in the jambs of the portals or above the lintels of the churches, but also in baptismal fonts and holy water.

Update

26/9/2023 - 00:12