Severo Calzetta da Ravenna - Dragon, bronze, 18th century

Severo (Calzetta) da Ravenna worked in Padua, where he is likely to have finished his training, in Ferrara and in Ravenna, where he first appears in a document of 1496. Severo specialized in small bronzes, and though he produced religious figures, such as the Corpus from a crucifix in the Cleveland Museum of Art, his main subjects were pagan, including dragons and satyrs, and functional objects, such as inkwells, candlesticks, and oil lamps. Pomponius Gauricus mentions Severo in his chapter on bronzes in De Sculptura (1504).