Little is known of Pier Jacopo Alari-Bonacolsis’ background. Antico was the most outstanding sculptor produced by the court in Mantua. Apart from journeys to Rome, he never seems to have left Mantua territory. In an artistic career that lasted almost 50 years, he worked for several generations of the art-loving ducal Gonzaga family.

A large number of bronzes from his remarkably wide-ranging oeuvre have survived as a testimony to his fame. Antico was a pioneer in the refinement of casting technology, giving rise to the outstanding quality of his modelling. Besides executing his own designs, he also restored antique figures and copied antiques for the Gonzaga family. However, he seldom restricted himself to copying and often augmented his replicas, the originals of which frequently only survived in fragmentary form. The pseudonym Antico alludes to his style of imitating classical antiquity.