ANDREA BREGNO. — Sculptor and architect, b. at Righeggia near Osteno in 1418, d. at Rome in Sept. 1503: in 1506 a funerary monument was erected to him in the cloister of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. He carried out almost his entire long career in Rome, residing in a house in the Trevi district “in ascensu montis Caballi” (cf. testament dated 8 July 1503), whence it is believed he should be identified with that Andrea da Montecavallo often mentioned in contemporary documents. A collector and dealer in ancient sculptures, he translated this taste for classical art into the numerous funerary monuments and carved altars he made for the churches of Rome; in these works of Bregno’s, in fact, the Tuscan scheme of Rossellino (v. ROSSELLI, COSIMO, BERNARDO) for the tabernacle-tomb is enriched with ornamentation of Lombard derivation, disciplined within architectural terms of classical breadth inspired by the works of the early Renaissance in Rome. These elements are fused with particular measure and elegance in the monument to Alberti in S. Maria in Araceli (dated 1465; it is the first known work of Bregno’s in Rome) and in the monument to Coca in S. Maria sopra Minerva, typical for the high socle supporting the sarcophagus in the manner of similar coeval Venetian-Lombard monuments. Together with the marble altar in S. Maria del Popolo (1473), these early works are among the most authentic of those executed by Bregno, who then made extensive use—when carrying out the numerous commissions entrusted to him by Pope Sixtus IV—of the activity of pupils and assistants, among whom were Giovanni Dalmata and Mino da Fiesole himself, from whom he drew at times soft modelling or harsh plastic effects (see also the ciborium of S. Gregorio al Celio, 1469).
The importance assumed by Bregno’s personality in the developments of sculpture at the end of the 15th century exceeds the actual scope of his intrinsic artistic qualities, owing to the wide diffusion that his models enjoyed throughout the school, so much so that it may be affirmed that all the plastic art of that period in Rome assumed a typical physiognomy through the work of this Lombard master. The funerary monuments of Cardinals Capranica and Tebaldi in S. Maria sopra Minerva, of Cardinal Alano in S. Sabina, and of Bishop Gonnini in S. Maria del Popolo thus derive from the prototype of the monuments to Alberti and Coca: as do numerous others (of Cardinal Roca, of Giovanni della Rovere, of P. Mellini, of P. Ferricci in S. Maria del Popolo, of Albertoni, of F. della Valle, of Cardinal Savelli in S. Maria in Araceli) which follow the model—complex of niches with statues in the lateral pilasters—of the monument to Pietro Rario (d. 1474) in SS. Apostoli; or the examples provided by the monument to Raffaele della Rovere (d. 1477), there, and the monument to Cristoforo della Rovere in S. Maria del Popolo. On the author’s design were then erected the monument to the parents of Sixtus IV, at Savona, and the monument to Pius II, now in S. Andrea della Valle, in whose execution different artists may be discerned. The decorative complexes of buildings erected at the wish of Pope Sixtus IV were also entrusted to the activity of Bregno’s school; and in the balustrades, in the framing of the altarpieces of the chapels of S. Maria del Popolo, in the cantoria of the Sistine Chapel—as in the frames of the doors of the Hospital of S. Spirito—is clear the trace of the typical ornamental manner of the Lombard. Affinities between the plastic works of Bregno and the decorative parts of the façade of the Palazzo della Cancelleria have led to the attribution to the author and his school—and with good probability—of the execution of much of that building, identifying Bregno thus with the Antonio Montecavallo mentioned by Vasari (Lavagnino), while the name of the architect responsible for the design remains unknown. From this participation, however, it is not permissible to draw conclusions regarding any properly architectural activity on the part of the author, for which reason the attribution to Bregno of the church of S. Maria del Popolo or of other Roman buildings of that period is not acceptable.
— See Pl. III.