Basilica of San Domenico

It wasn't actually his surname.

He got that nickname because he worked on the marble canopy, the Ark of San Domenico in Bologna.

And people in his own time called him Niccolo di Puglia or di Bari or Niccolo Schiavo, which means slave.

He probably came from southern Italy, probably from the city of Bari or perhaps from Dalmatia, which is modern day Croatia.

This scroll acts as a stand-in for Niccolo's own hands and it's creating a permanent touch relic that allows the sculptor to internally inhabit Christ's tomb.

I know this doesn't make a lot of sense in our world today, but this was quite powerful in the 1460s.

So much so, That 30 years later in 1494, a 19-year-old guy named Michelangelo arrives in Bologna and he's there to complete three marble statues on the Ark of San Domenico, which Niccolo had been working on and left unfinished.

And Michelangelo closely studied his work and the signature in particular on the Compianto, on the Lamentation series.