BRIOSCO, BENEDETTO. – Lombard architect and sculptor of the 15th century, a pupil of Amadeo, he worked chiefly in Milan; of his activity in that cathedral, only a statue representing St Agnes, from 1491, remains. In the same year he went to the Certosa of Pavia; there he undertook several statues (including that of the Virgin, for the mausoleum of Gian Galeazzo Visconti) and, in 1497, the decorative reliefs of the façade. In 1499 he replaced his master in the decoration of the portal, a commission he carried out in a graceful and elegant style. Toward the end of his life he modernized his style under the influence of the Vinci school, as is evident from several bas-reliefs.
BIBL.: F. Malaguzzi Valeri, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, V, pp. 23–24; L. Beltrami, Il « compare mio maestro Benedetto scultore » di Leonardo, in Miscellanea Vinciana, Milan 1923, p. 20; S. Vigezzi, La scultura lombarda nel Cinquecento, there 1929, p. 19 ff. Fabia Borroni