Andrea Bregno
Encyclopedia
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
from the 1460s and died just as the High Renaissance
High Renaissance
The expression High Renaissance, in art history, is a periodizing convention used to denote the apogee of the visual arts in the Italian Renaissance...
was getting under way.
Early life
He was born in Osteno, LombardyLombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, into one of the most famous artistic families in Northern Italy. His father, Cristoforo Bregno, and his brothers, Ambrogio and Girolamo, were also sculptors. They formed a workshop in Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, and took over the supervision of the architecture at the Doge's Palace in Venice after the death of Bartolomeo Bon
Bartolomeo Bon
Bartolomeo Bon was an Italian sculptor and architect from Campione d'Italia.Together with his father Giovanni, he worked in Venice: they finished the decoration of the famous Gothic Ca' d'Oro and the marble door of the Basilica di Santa Maria dei Frari...
.
Career in Rome
Andrea Bregno was invited to move from Venice to Rome when the Venetian Paul IIPope Paul II
Pope Paul II , born Pietro Barbo, was pope from 1464 until his death in 1471.- Early life :He was born in Venice, and was a nephew of Pope Eugene IV , through his mother. His adoption of the spiritual career, after having been trained as a merchant, was prompted by his uncle's election as pope...
was elected Pope.
During the pontificate of the Della Rovere Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the Sistine Chapel; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age,...
he received many commissions and headed a large workshop, producing many wall tombs of cardinals and other figures of the papal curia
Curia
A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...
with varying degrees of personal responsibility. He was famous among his contemporaries, and was compared to the Greek sculptor Polykleitos
Polykleitos
Polykleitos ; called the Elder, was a Greek sculptor in bronze of the fifth and the early 4th century BCE...
in the epitaph of his tomb in Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Santa Maria sopra Minerva
The Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva is a titular minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic church in Rome. It houses...
. Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi
Giovanni Santi
Giovanni Santi was an Italian painter and decorator, father of Raphael. He was born at Colbordolo in the Duchy of Urbino. He was a petty merchant for a time; he then studied under Piero della Francesca. He was influenced by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and seems to have been an assistant and friend of...
, mentioned Bregno in the 1480s, in his biography of Federico da Montefeltro
Federico da Montefeltro
Federico da Montefeltro, also known as Federico III da Montefeltro , was one of the most successful condottieri of the Italian Renaissance, and lord of Urbino from 1444 until his death...
, duke of Urbino. Bregno often worked with Mino da Fiesole
Mino da Fiesole
Mino da Fiesole , also known as Mino di Giovanni, was an Italian sculptor from Poppi, Tuscany. He is noted for his portrait busts.-Career:...
in Rome, and his refined Lombard manner was rendered more classical by the contact and by the example of Roman sculptures that were increasingly coming to light, of which Andrea Bregno was an early collector: a certain "Prospettivo Milanese", writing in 1499-1500 refers to a torso in the collection of a "Maestro Andrea" that seems to have been the Belvedere Torso
Belvedere Torso
The Belvedere Torso is a fragment of a nude male statue, signed prominently on the front of the base by an Athenian sculptor "Apollonios son of Nestor", who is unmentioned in ancient literature...
.
He moved in humanist circles and was an esteemed friend of the humanist in Sixtus' circle, Bartolomeo Platina
Bartolomeo Platina
Bartolomeo Platina, originally named Sacchi was an Italian Renaissance writer.-Biography:Platina was born at Piadena , near Cremona....
, the librarian of the Vatican Library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
. Bregno played a significant role in the standardization of an authentically classicizing style of epigraphy, in the inscriptions that accompany his tombs. In the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
he collaborated with Mino da Fiesole and Giovanni Dalmata to produce the little cantoria or choristers' gallery set into the wall, with its own coffered ceiling and carved marble baluster
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
s, and the marble screen.
The attribution to Andrea Bregno and Baccio Pontelli
Baccio Pontelli
Baccio Pontelli was an Italian architect. Baccio is an abbreviation of Bartolomeo.Pontelli was born in Florence. Passing the phase of artistic formation with Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano in Florence, and influenced by Francesco di Giorgio Martini during the trip to Urbino , he was an in-layer...
of the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.The piazza lies inside the northern...
, commissioned by Sixtus IV, is traditional, as is the tradition that the two were responsible for the Palazzo della Cancelleria
Palazzo della Cancelleria
The Palazzo della Cancelleria is a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy, situated between the present Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Campo de' Fiori, in the rione of Parione...
. Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante was an Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St...
followed in both locations. In Santa Maria del Popolo Bramante extended the apse, but the facade is of the earlier campaign, picked out in architectural guides as one of the finest pieces of Early Renaissance architecture in Rome.
His late masterwork is the elaborate white marble reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
of the Piccolomini altar in the Duomo of Siena
Duomo di Siena
The Cathedral of Siena , dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church and now to Santa Maria Assunta , is a medieval church in Siena, central Italy....
, completed in 1503. It takes the form of an architectural facade round a large central exedra
Exedra
In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess or plinth, often crowned by a semi-dome, which is sometimes set into a building's facade. The original Greek sense was applied to a room that opened onto a stoa, ringed with curved high-backed stone benches, a suitable place for a philosophical...
with a half-domed head, and figures in niches. In 1481, Andrea Bregno had started the altar for the tomb of Cardinal Francesco Todeschini-Piccolomini, who was to succeed Pope Alexander VI briefly as Pius III
Pope Pius III
Pope Pius III , born Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, was Pope from September 22 to October 18, 1503.-Career:...
in 1503.
Bregno died in Rome in 1506. His tomb, dated 1506, in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, bears his portrait bust, probably a work of Luigi Capponi
Luigi Capponi
Luigi Capponi was an Italian Catholic Cardinal who became Archbishop of Ravenna.-Biography:Capponi was born in 1582, the son of Senator Francesco Capponi and Ludovica Macchiavelli. The Capponi family had extensive links to Italian political circles and to senior members of the Catholic Church...
.
A symposium held at Urbino, 24-25 June 2006, resulted in the publication Andrea Bregno Giovanni Santi e la cultura adriatica del Rinascimento : Atti del Convegno di Studi, Giuliana Gardelli, ed., (Rome, 2007).
Tombs (all in Rome)
- Niche tomb of Ludovico Cardinal d'Albert (died 1465) Santa Maria in AracoeliSanta Maria in AracoeliThe Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven is a titular basilica in Rome, located on the highest summit of the Campidoglio. It is still the designated Church of the city council of Rome, which uses the ancient title of Senatus Populusque Romanus...
, Rome. Traces of gilding and color remain on the marble. - Tomb of the polymath Cardinal Nicholas of CusaNicholas of CusaNicholas of Kues , also referred to as Nicolaus Cusanus and Nicholas of Cusa, was a cardinal of the Catholic Church from Germany , a philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and an astronomer. He is widely considered one of the great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century...
(died 1464), San Pietro in VincoliSan Pietro in VincoliSan Pietro in Vincoli is a Roman Catholic titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, best known for being the home of Michelangelo's statue of Moses, part of the tomb of Pope Julius II.-History:...
; with a polychrome relief of Saint Peter flanked by the kneeling cardinal and the Angel of Resurrection. (illustration, upper right) - Tomb of Cardinal Tebaldi (died 1466), Santa Maria sopra Minerva, executed with Giovanni Dalmata.
- Tomb of Cardinal Alano (died 1474), in San Prassede
- Tomb of Cardinal Pietro Riario (died 1474, in the Church of Santissimi Apostoli,.
- Tomb of Cardinal Cristoforo Della Rovere (died 1477), a nephew of Sixtus, Santa Maria del Popolo. A Madonna is by Mino da FiesoleMino da FiesoleMino da Fiesole , also known as Mino di Giovanni, was an Italian sculptor from Poppi, Tuscany. He is noted for his portrait busts.-Career:...
. - Tomb of Raffael Della Rovere (died 1477), the brother of Sixtus IV, crypt of Santissimi Apostoli (unfinished)
- Tomb of Cardinal Juan Diego de Coca (died 1477), Santa Maria sopra MinervaSanta Maria sopra MinervaThe Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva is a titular minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic church in Rome. It houses...
, Rome. - Wall tomb of Fra Lippo Lippi, Spoleto cathedral, c. 1492.
- Madonna, marble bas-relief in the Ospedale di S. Giacomo in Augusta, Rome.
- Altar (1469) in the Salviati Chapel, San Gregorio Magno. With a relief of The Apparition of St Michael to St Gregory.
- Tabernacle, Sanctuary of S. Maria della Quercia, Viterbo
- Two ciboriaCiboriumthumb|250px|[[Silver-gilt]] ciboriumA ciborium is a vessel, normally in metal...
, Santa Maria del Popolo.