( fl c. 1276–92). Italian sculptor. He signed the tomb of the Falcone children placed against the lateral wall of S Margherita, Bisceglie (Puglia). The effaced date in the inscription was probably 1276. The monument has an ogee-shaped baldacchino with a trefoil arch. Anseramo also signed the portal of the collegiate church of Terlizzi (destr.), now immured in the church of the Madonna del Rosario in that city. The tympanum shows the Last Supper, the lintel the Annunciation, the Three Magi, the Nativity and the Crucifixion. Fragments found in Bari Cathedral (Bari, Pin. Prov.), including two bearing Anseramo’s name, have been convincingly identified as the remains of two ciboria over the side altars of the Virgin and St John the Baptist. They were commissioned by Archbishop Romualdo Grisone (reg 1280–1309), who rededicated the church in 1292. A now untraced fragment of a tomb once standing against the collegiate church of Terlizzi was attributed by Bertaux to Anseramo on stylistic grounds. There is no reason to identify the sculptor with the Anseranus protomagister who signed an architrave of Emperor Frederick II’s castle at Orta (destr.). Anseramo’s work is, like much contemporary work in the region, characterized by rich ornament showing an elaboration of Romanesque Apulian forms. The portal of Terlizzi also shows an awkward treatment of the human figure. The Byzantine features of the iconography of the scenes point to two-dimensional models (e.g. illuminated manuscripts and frescoes). Apparently the sculptor had difficulties in transferring such designs into relief.

• Anseramo da Trani
  • Bari (i), §1: Cathedral