BREGNO, ANDREA. - Sculptor and architect, b. at Righeggia near Ozeno in 1418, d. in Rome in Sept. 1503: in 1506 a funeral monument was erected to him in the cloister of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. He carried on almost all of his long activity in Rome, dwelling in a house in the Trevi district "in ascensu montis Caballi" (cf. will dated 8 July 1503), whence it is believed he must be identified with that Andrea da Montecavallo often mentioned in the documents of the time. A collector and dealer of ancient sculptures, he translated this taste of his for classical art into the numerous funeral monuments and altars carved for the churches of Rome; in these works of B., in fact, the Tuscan Rossellinian scheme (v. ROSSELLINO, BERNARDO) of the tabernacle tomb is enriched with an ornamentation of Lombard descent, disciplined within architectural terms of classical breadth, inspired by the Roman works of the early Renaissance. These elements appear fused with particular measure and elegance in the d'Albert monument in S. Maria in Aracoeli (dated 1465; it is the first known work of B. in Rome) and in the Coca monument in S. Maria sopra Minerva, typical 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 first works are among the most genuine of those B. executed, who then made wide use - for the realization of the numerous commissions entrusted to him by the pontiff Sixtus IV - of the activity of pupils and assistants, among whom were Giovanni Dalmata and Mino da Fiesole himself, from whom he derived now softness of modeling, now harsh plastic effects (see also the ciborium of S. Gregorio al Celio, 1469).
The importance assumed by B.'s personality in the developments of sculpture at the end of the 15th century in fact exceeds the actual scope of his intrinsic artistic qualities, because of the wide diffusion that his models had through the school, so much so that it can be asserted that all the plastic art of that period in Rome took on a typical physiognomy through the work of the Lombard master. The funeral monuments of Card. Capranica and Card. Tebaldi in S. Maria sopra Minerva, of Card. Alano in S. Sabina, of Bishop Gonnel in S. Maria del Popolo thus derive from the prototype of the d'Albert and Coca monuments: just as numerous others (of Card. Roca, of Giovanni della Rovere, of P. Mellini, of P. Ferricci in S. Maria del Popolo, of the Albertoni, of F. della Valle, of Card. Savelli in S. Maria in Aracoeli) go back to the model - a complex of niches with statues in the lateral pilasters - of the monument to Pietro Riario (d. in 1474) in SS. Apostoli; or to the examples provided by the monument to Raffaele della Rovere (d. in 1477), there, and by the monument to Cristoforo della Rovere in S. Maria del Popolo. On the author's design there were then erected the monument of the parents of Sixtus IV, at Savona, and the monument to Pius II, today in S. Andrea della Valle, in whose execution different artists can be recognized. To the activity of B.'s school were also entrusted decorative complexes of buildings erected by the will of the pontiff Sixtus IV; and in the parapets, in the frames of the antependia 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 - the trace of the Lombard's typical ornamental manner is clear. Affinities between the plastic works of B. and the decorative parts of the facade of the Palazzo della Cancelleria have led to attributing to the author and his school - and with good probability - the execution of a great part of that building, thus identifying A. B. with the Antonio Montecavallo mentioned by Vasari (Lavagnino), while the name of the architect who authored the design remains unknown. From such participation it does not, however, appear legitimate to draw conclusions about a properly architectural activity of the author, for which reason the attribution to B. of the church of S. Maria del Popolo, as of other Roman buildings of that period, is not acceptable. - See Pl. III.
Bibliography5 works
Maria Vittoria Brugnoli