DALLE MASEGNE, JACOBELLO and PIETROPAOLO. – Venetian sculptors and architects, brothers, also called « da Venezia ». Of Pietropaolo, as private information, it is known that he made his will in 1403; of Jacobello, that after his return to Bologna (1408), all trace of him is lost in 1409. They worked in Venice, Mantua, Milan, Pavia, and Bologna. Despite their constant association, the individual stylistic differences in their works are fairly clear.
Works by Pietropaolo: the tomb monument of Giovanni da Legnano in Bologna (1386); the tomb monument of Margherita Malatesta in Mantua (1399); the large window in the south façade of the Palazzo Ducale and the tomb monument of Doge Venier in SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1400).
Works by Jacobello: the iconostasis of the basilica of S. Marco in Venice (1392–94); the design for the façade of the cathedral of Mantua (1396).
Activities undertaken jointly by both: the commission for the altar of S. Francesco in Bologna, executed by Pietropaolo alone (1388); work on the cathedral of Milan (1399).
Although they started from a common training rooted in the Venetian sculptural tradition, in which Oriental elements and northern and Tuscan influences (Nino Pisano) converged,
Pietropaolo’s works are distinguished by less rigid execution, a delicate transition between planes, and an extensive study of drapery, elegantly rhythmized. Jacobello’s sculpture, on the other hand, is characterized by a sharper and deeper stylization, more energetic and at times angular movement, and a restrained force remote from every decorative artifice.
The incisive and multifaceted sculpture of the D. M. brothers played a major part in the development of late-fourteenth-century Emilian sculpture.
Paolo, Jacobello’s son, was also a sculptor; to him is attributed the tomb monument of Jacopo Cavalli in the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice.