MANTEGAZZA, CRISTOFORO and ANTONIO. — Sculptors, natives of Milan. Sons of Galeazzo, they initially worked as goldsmiths, perhaps in their father’s workshop, to which, it seems, two of their brothers, Giorgio and Giovanni, continued to devote themselves.
In 1464 Cristoforo appears with other stonecutters among the workmen of the Certosa of Pavia, with the humble task of supplying cut stone; but from the beginning of that same year he had presented worked marble to the administration of the project and subsequently is recorded as receiving a monthly salary. In 1465 he worked on the terracotta decoration of the great cloister; in 1467 he received six pieces of marble from which to make sculptures for the Sforza Castle. Following the recommendation of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the two brothers were commissioned to supply the marble for the façade of the Certosa, which was being built under the direction of Guiniforte Solari. However, in 1474 half of the work was taken from them and entrusted to Amadeo. The documents mention several sculptures executed by the brothers, one of whom, Cristoforo, died on 7 February 1482. Antonio moved to Milan, where he died not long before 1 October 1495.
Cristoforo and Antonio are, chronologically, the first Renaissance sculptors to have been born and to have worked in Lombardy, and their works at the Certosa of Pavia reveal a passionate formal energy, extraordinary plastic vigor, and a search for expressiveness through sharp planes and profiles, while the metallic accentuation of the relief perhaps derives from their practice of repoussé. Since it is reasonable to regard Cristoforo as the more authoritative of the two brothers, he is credited with the busts on the northern side of the small cloister of the Certosa of Pavia (1464–66), ornamental sculptures in the great cloister, the Doctors on the capitals of the Tiburio (mentioned in a document of 1478); the three reliefs with scenes from the Passion in the Museo della Certosa, the Madonna in the Foulc Collection, three Virtues in the Louvre, two Angels in the Sforza Castle of Milan, etc. A.’s figurative language, on the other hand, appears as a development of that of his brother, and is represented by a securely dated work, the lavabo, with the Washing of the Feet at the Certosa (1488), around which may be grouped the Pietà of the transept door toward the small cloister, three panels with scenes from the life of Christ, two Kneeling Angels in the Sforza Castle, the Pietà in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and other works, probably produced in collaboration.
In light of the latest research, the influence exerted by the two brothers appears to have been very extensive and important; and it was fundamental to the formation of the taste that would dominate in Lombardy from 1480 to 1500.