The Triumph of the City

 

The High Renaissance
 
&

Mannerism


 

(Renaissance  Art Map)








 

Benedetto Briosco

Jacopo Sansovino




See collections:


Lorenzo Costa


Francesco Francia


Bramantino


Marcantonio Raimondi


Sebastiano del Piombo



 

The Schools of Northern Italy

As the 16th century dawned, certain elements of Venetian painting that were rooted in the previous century flourished in works by artists such as Giovanni Bellini (c. 1434-1516). The sacre conversazioni (''holy conversation"), the sacred theme of his San Zaccaria Altarpiece (1505), was painted in warm, suffused tones that give a serene naturalism to the figures, landscape, and architecture. The same range of colours appears in the work of Giorgione (c.1477-1510), an artist with such confidence in his composition that he often did without preparatory sketches, creating his paintings by means of colour and light. The atmospheric feel of Giorgione's art, seen clearly in The Tempest, highlights his links with Leonardo and his school. Titian (c. 1488-1576) developed alongside Giorgione, and in 1508 the two artists were engaged to decorate the exterior of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice. Venice quickly attracted other artists: Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), the great German artist, returned there in 1505 to further his studies of antiquity and humanism. Despite the turmoil of the political wars in Italy (1494— 1530), by the beginning of the 16th century, the Venetian school of painting held great power and influence, its painters enjoying supremacy throughout Italy and Europe. Traditionally a sea-trading capital, Venice became one of the richest states in Europe, its prosperity and artistic influence resting as much on its mainland territories, which included Padua and Bergamo, as on its great sea empire, which encompassed lands from nearby Istria to Cyprus (acquired in 1489). In the meantime, despite Venetian domination, wider artistic styles were emerging and spreading throughout northern Italy. A large group of students and admirers of Leonardo, who had returned to Florence after the fall of the Sforza court, were shaping an early form of the Mannerism that was to dominate central Europe by the mid-l6th century. In the Duchy of Milan, Benedetto Briosco (active 1483-1517) was involved in the decoration of the facade of the Certosa at Pavia, giving a courtly appearance to the antique classicism of the Lombard style. However, it was Bramantino (c.1465-1S30) who experimented with new and more expressive forms as he explored abstraction in his Adoration of the Magi (c.1500). At Bologna, Lorenzo Costa (c.1460-1535) and Francesco Francia (c.1450-15P) collaborated in decorating the walls of the Oratory of Santa Cecilia. Their unified style, rich in references to Perugino and Raphael, combined spiritual meaning with great intimacy. Ideas circulated quickly, partly thanks to the popularity of engravings, one of the most significant areas of Renaissance art. While Durer introduced his wood-engraving cycles The Passion and The Life of the Virgin into northern Italy, influencing the direction of 16th-century painting particularly around the Alpine areas, the Bolognese engraver Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1480-1534) spread the Raphaelesque style through Europe. Copies, engravings, and drawings of great masterpieces such as Leonardo's Last Slipper became another means of diffusing new forms, and the travels of artists became crucial to the development of art. carrying ideas from one place to another. For example, in the early years of the century. Sebastiano del Piombo (c.1485-1547) visited Rome, bringing the Renaissance of Venice into contact with that of Rome, while Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570) travelled from Florence to Rome and then on to Venice.

Benedetto Briosco

(b Milan, c. 1460; d ?Milan, after April 1514).

Italian sculptor. The first notice of his activity dates from 1477, when he and his brother-in-law Francesco Cazzaniga were employed as sculptors on the monument to Giovanni Borromeo and Vitaliano Borromeo (Isola Bella, Palazzo Borromeo, chapel), which was executed for S Francesco Grande, Milan. By 1482 he had begun employment for the Works of Milan Cathedral and in 1483 was paid for carving a figure of S Apollonia (untraced). Although he was a master figure sculptor at the cathedral until the middle of 1485, the other work he did there remains unknown. During 1483–4 it is likely that he assisted Francesco and Tommaso Cazzaniga in the execution of the tomb of Cristoforo and Giacomo Antonio della Torre (Milan, S Maria delle Grazie). In 1484 he and the Cazzaniga brothers began work on the tomb of Pietro Francesco Visconti di Saliceto destined for the Milanese church of S Maria del Carmine (destr.; reliefs in Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.; Kansas City, MO, Nelson-Atkins Mus. A.; and Washington, DC, N.G.A.; architectural elements in Paris, Louvre). This project was completed by Briosco and Tommaso Cazzaniga following Francesco Cazzaniga’s death at the beginning of 1486. In the same year Benedetto and Tommaso were commissioned to finish the tomb of Giovanni Francesco Brivio (Milan, S Eustorgio), designed and begun by Francesco. Briosco’s hand is virtually impossible to distinguish in these collaborative works. In 1489 the Apostolic Prothonotary and ducal councillor Ambrogio Griffo engaged Briosco to execute his funerary monument, to be installed in the church of S Pietro in Gessate, Milan. This tomb, which in its original form consisted of an effigy mounted on a high rectangular sarcophagus, appears to be Briosco’s first major independent work and represents a significant break with Lombard tradition; although its design may to some extent have been influenced by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo’s tomb to Medea Colleoni (Bergamo, Colleoni Chapel), it was free-standing and entirely secular in content. In 1490 Briosco returned to Milan Cathedral, where he was engaged to carve four life-size statues each year until he or his employers should cancel the arrangement. Although he worked at the cathedral until mid-1492, only a figure of St Agnes (Milan, Mus. Duomo) is documented from this period.

Benedetto Briosco and Tommaso Cazzaniga
The Flight into Egypt
1484

Benedetto Briosco
Head of an Angelc
1490

Benedetto Briosco
La fondazione della Certosa di Pavia

Jacopo Sansovino

(b Florence, bapt 2 July 1486; d Venice, 27 Nov 1570).

Sculptor and architect. After establishing his reputation in Florence and Rome, he moved to Venice following the Sack of Rome (1527) and remained active there until his death. His most important architectural works were buildings that transformed the Piazza S Marco. The influence of his sculptural style continued well into the 17th century.

 

Jacopo Sansovino
Allegory of Redemption
1546-65
Bronze gilt, 43 x 37 cm
Basilica di San Marco, Venice

Jacopo Sansovino
Bacchus
1511-18
Marble, height: 146 cm
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Jacopo Sansovino
St John the Baptist
1554
Marble
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice

Jacopo Sansovino
Apollo from the Loggetta of the Campanile
c. 1537-45
Bronze, height: 147 cm
Piazza San Marco, Venice

Jacopo Sansovino
Neptune
1554-67
Marble, height: 305 cm
Palazzo Ducale, Venice

Jacopo Sansovino
Madonna del Parto
1518
Marble, over lifesize
S. Agostino, Rome

Jacopo Sansovino
Loggetta of the Campanile
c. 1537-45
Red, white and green marbles and bronze
Piazza San Marco, Venice

  
       
See collections:

Lorenzo Costa

Francesco Francia

Bramantino

Marcantonio Raimondi

Sebastiano del Piombo