(b ?Florence, 1500; d ?Florence, 7 Sept 1550). Italian sculptor, engineer and garden designer. He was apprenticed in Florence first as a wood-carver with Giovanni d’Alesso d’Antonio and then as a sculptor with Jacopo Sansovino, whom he continued to assist well into the second decade of the 16th century. Vasari listed many works (most now untraced) from Tribolo’s youth, among which was his earliest fountain; an old terracotta copy (London, V&A) shows this unpretentious and slightly old-fashioned work to have featured two children and a spouting dolphin that foreshadow the blithe charm of his later masterpieces.

• Tribolo, Niccolò
  • assistants
    • Cioli: (2) Valerio Cioli
    • Mosca: (1) Simone Mosca
  • attributions
    • Pierino da Vinci
  • collaboration
    • Bologna, §IV, 2: S Petronio
    • Cioli: (1) Simone Cioli
    • Fantoni, Giacomo
    • Medici, de’: (7) Pope Leo X
    • Montelupo, da: (2) Raffaello da Montelupo
    • Sangallo, da: (6) Francesco da Sangallo
    • Aimo, Domenico
      • Aimo, Domenico
    • Buglioni, Santi (di Michele Viviano)
      • Buglioni: (2) Santi Buglioni
      • Michelangelo, §I, 4(i)(c): Biblioteca Laurenziana
    • Cosini, Silvio
      • Cosini, Silvio
    • Sangallo, Francesco da
      • Loreto, §II, 1(ii)(a): S Maria di Loreto: Santa Casa architecture and sculpture
    • Stagi, Stagio
      • Stagi, Stagio
    • Volpaia, Benvenuto di Lorenzo
      • Volpaia
  • gardens
    • Florence, §IV, 9(iii): Palazzo Pitti: Boboli Gardens
  • grottoes
    • Grotto
  • patrons and collectors
    • Gaddi (ii): (1) Giovanni de’ Gaddi
    • Giambologna, §I, 2: Statues, statue groups and fountains
    • Italy, §IV, 3(iii)(a): Mannerist sculpture, c 1530–c 1600: Florence
    • Medici, de’: (14) Cosimo I de’ Medici
    • Palla, Giovanbattista della
    • Valois, House of: (14) Francis I, §2: Painting, sculpture and other arts
    • Vasari: (1) Giorgio Vasari, §IV: Collection
  • pupils
    • Lorenzi: (2) Stoldo Lorenzi
  • sculpture
    • Terracotta, §II, 2(i)(a): History and uses in the Western world: Sculpture
    • allegorical
      • Italy, §XIV, 1: Museums: Renaissance collections
      • Italy, §XIII, 1: Collecting and dealing: Middle Ages–17th century
    • fountains
      • Ammanati, Bartolomeo, §1: Sculpture
      • Danti: (1) Vincenzio Danti, §1: Life and work
      • Fountain, §IV, 2: Western world: Renaissance
    • reliefs
      • Relief sculpture, §2(vi): Renaissance
      • Sansovino, Andrea, §1(iii): Loreto and Florence, 1513–29
    • statuettes
      • Statuette, §II, 1(ii)(a): 16th century: Florence and Rome
    • tombs
      • Bandinelli, Baccio, §1(iii): 1527–c 1542
  • teachers
    • Sansovino: (1) Jacopo Sansovino, §1(i): Training and early career, to 1517