BREGNO, ANDREA. — Sculptor and architect, b. at Righeggia near Ozeno in 1418, d. in Rome in September 1503; in 1506 a funerary monument was erected to him in the cloister of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. He carried out almost all his long career in Rome, residing in a house in the Trevi district “in ascensu montis Caballi” (cf. his will dated 8 July 1503); it is therefore believed that he should be identified with that Andrea da Montecavallo frequently mentioned in the documents of the period. A collector and dealer in ancient sculptures, he translated this taste for classical art into the numerous funerary monuments and altars carved for the churches of Rome; in B.’s works, in fact, the Tuscan Rossellinian scheme (v. ROSSELLI, COSIMO, BERNARDO) of the tabernacle tomb is enriched by ornamentation of Lombard derivation, disciplined within architectural forms of classical breadth, inspired by the Roman works of the early Renaissance. These elements appear fused with particular restraint and elegance in the d’Albert monument in S. Maria in Aracoeli (dated 1465; it is B.’s first known work in Rome) and in the Coca monument in S. Maria sopra Minerva, characteristic for the high base supporting the sarcophagus in the manner of analogous contemporary Veneto-Lombard monuments. Together with the marble altar in S. Maria del Popolo (1473), these early works are among the most genuine of all those executed by B., who subsequently made extensive use—for the execution of the numerous commissions entrusted to him by Pope Sisto IV—of the activity of pupils and assistants, among whom were Giovanni Dalmata and Mino da Fiesole himself, from whom he variously derived either softness of modelling or harshness of plastic form (vedi S. Gregorio al Celio, 1469).
The importance assumed by B.’s personality in the development of late-fifteenth-century sculpture in fact exceeds the effective significance of his intrinsic artistic qualities, owing to the wide diffusion enjoyed by his models through his school, so much so that it may be stated that all the sculptural art of that period in Rome acquired its distinctive character through the work of the Lombard master. The funerary monuments of Cardinal Capranica and Cardinal Tebaldi in S. Maria sopra Minerva, of Cardinal Alano in S. Sabina, and of Bishop Gonnel in S. Maria del Popolo thus derive from the prototype of the d’Albert and Coca monuments; numerous others (of Cardinal Roca, Giovanni della Rovere, P. Mellini, and P. Ferricci in S. Maria del Popolo, of Albertoni, F. della Valle, and Cardinal Savelli in S. Maria in Aracoeli) are likewise based on the model—consisting of a complex of niches with statues in the lateral pilasters—of the monument to Pietro Riario (d. in 1474) in SS. Apostoli; or on the examples provided by the monument to Raffaele della Rovere (d. in 1477), likewise there, and by the monument to Cristoforo della Rovere in S. Maria del Popolo. The monument to the parents of Sisto IV at Savona and the monument to Pio II, now in S. Andrea della Valle, were subsequently erected according to the author’s design; in the execution of the latter, different artists can be recognized. The school of B. was also entrusted with decorative complexes for buildings erected at the behest of Pope Sisto IV; and in the balustrades, the frames of the altar frontals in the chapels of S. Maria del Popolo, the singers’ gallery of the Sistine Chapel—as in the frames of the doors of the hospital of S. Spirito—the distinctive ornamental manner of the Lombard is clearly evident. Affinities between B.’s sculptural works and the decorative parts of the façade of the Palazzo della Cancelleria have led to the attribution to the author and his school—with considerable probability—of the execution of a large part of that building, thereby identifying A. B. with the Antonio Montecavallo mentioned by Vasari (Lavagnino), while the name of the architect who designed it remains unknown. This participation does not, however, appear to justify conclusions concerning an actual architectural activity on the part of the author, and consequently the attribution to B. of the church of S. Maria del Popolo, as well as of other Roman buildings of that period, cannot be accepted. — Vedi Tav. III.
Maria Vittoria Brugnoli