Andrea (di Cristoforo) Bregno

(b Osteno, nr Lugano, 1418; d Rome, Sept 1503).

Italian architect and sculptor. Nothing is known of Bregno’s activity until his arrival in Rome in the 1460s, although his early works betray a Lombard training. During the pontificate of Sixtus IV he became the most popular and prolific sculptor of his day, with a large and well-organized bottega. He worked mainly on the decoration of tombs of prelates and dignitaries of the papal court. Bregno became famous in his lifetime and was mentioned, together with Verrocchio, by Giovanni Santi in La vita e le geste di Federico di Montefeltro duca d’Urbino, written between 1484 and 1487. The writer of a funeral epitaph actually compared him with Polykleitos. Bregno’s work is characterized by great refinement and technical skill. Although he was often not particularly inventive, he was certainly a fine sculptor of grotesques and other forms of ornamentation. He soon fell under the influence of Tuscan models, probably as a result of his contact with Mino da Fiesole, with whom he worked in Rome. There his style became more classical and its design more compact, with precise references to antique sculpture: documents show that he possessed a collection of antique objects recovered from excavations. He was also a friend of Platina, who held him in high esteem, as he wrote in a letter to Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Piccolomini Altar
1503
Marble
Duomo, Siena

Pietro Lombardo [Pietro Solari]

(b Carona, Lombardy, c. 1435; d Venice, June 1515).

Sculptor and architect. He is first documented in Bologna, where he rented a workshop at S Petronio between July 1462 and May 1463, presumably to work on some commission for the cathedral, perhaps the Rossi Chapel chancel (Beck, 1968). By 1464 he and his family had moved to Padua, where his most important work was the wall tomb of Doge Antonio Roselli in S Antonio (Il Santo), which he designed in early 1464 and finished by 8 April 1467 (Moschetti, 1913, 1914). The Roselli tomb introduced the 15th-century Florentine humanist tomb type into the region and marks the beginning of true Renaissance sculpture in the Veneto. Its derivation from the Carlo Marsuppini monument in Santa Croce, Florence, by Desiderio da Settignano suggests that Pietro visited Florence during his sojourn in Bologna. Pietro interpreted the Florentine model in a way that became characteristic of later Venetian tombs. He transformed it into a more heavily decorated and imposing tomb through the addition of a high base, monumental flanking pilasters, long decorative relief swags and an ornate cornice. At this date he also completed some architectural projects in Padua and Vicenza.

 

Allegorical Figure
c. 1485

Madonna and Child
c. 1475

Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos