Pietro Antonio Daverio

Very little is known about his early life. He might have been born in the Basilica of San Babila, in Milan in 1564. He was a pupil of Francesco Brambilla whose daughter Margherita he married^[1] and by whom he had more children, his sister Vittoria married the painter Aeneas Salmeggia.

His activity as a sculptor is documented from 1588 on the Annals of the factory of the cathedral of Milan with a payment To magistro Pietro Antonio Daverio , qual ha finito la statua di s. Gervasio incominciata dal Padoano , qual è morto avanti il finimento di essa, 1. 180. given the lack of information about his apprenticeship, it is assumed that the sculptor had his artistic training precisely in the great construction site of the Milan Cathedral, where he is reported to have been present until 1619, producing many works.

His ability to finish and interpret the works of other sculptors more renowned than him including Francesco Brambilla, led him to always be a minor part of the Milanese factory. In 1595 he was commissioned to make a bust representing Charles Borromeo for the Maggiore hospital in Milan, the bust was made in 1603, the work is sober but well executed, although the subject was depicted several times, and it was obligatory to make a likeness portrait of him, he knew how to give it originality by animating the cope and the bishop's mitre with decorative details.^[2]

A few years later, he was commissioned to make a bust of Francesco Sforza, for which there is evidence of a payment of 180 lire in 1606. The subject was identifiable only on iconographic documentation and not from a direct source, but Daverio managed to give a correct image of him, enclosed in his embroidered armor enclosed within a cloak knotted on his shoulders, his face with a sweet expression is furrowed by the wrinkles of age that weigh down his features. The bust was saved from the bombing during World War II.^[3]

He always remained faithful to his late Mannerist training by Brambilla, and although he became Gian Andrea Biffi's comprimario for the creation of the statue of the Pieta to be placed on the funeral monument of Pellegrino Tibaldi, he never allowed himself to be influenced by the more restless style of the young Milanese^[4]

The last commissions appear to be two statues depicting a saint Cancianilla and a saint Pelagia, again from the annals it appears that payment for this last work was collected by his son Charles after his death at the turn of 1621–1622.