MANTEGAZZA, CRISTOFORO AND ANTONIO. - Sculptors, natives of Milan. Sons of Galeazzo, they initially worked as goldsmiths, perhaps in their father's workshop, which, it seems, two of their brothers, Giorgio and Giovanni, continued to attend to.
In 1464 Cristoforo appears with other stonecutters among the workmen of the Certosa di Pavia, with the humble task of supplying cut stones; but from the beginning of that same year he had presented worked marbles to the direction of the works and subsequently he is found to be salaried monthly. In 1465 he worked on the terracotta decoration of the great cloister, in 1467 he received 6 pieces of marble to make sculptures for the Castello Sforzesco. Following the recommendation of Galeazzo Maria Sforza the two brothers obtained the commission to supply the marbles of 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 speak of several sculptures executed by the brothers, of whom one, 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 sculptors of the Renaissance who were born and worked in Lombardy, and their works in the Certosa di Pavia reveal a passionate formal energy, an extraordinary plastic vigour and a search for expressiveness, by means of sharp planes and profiles, while the metallic accentuation of the relief perhaps derives from the practice they had of embossing. Since it is legitimate to think of Cristoforo as the more authoritative of the two brothers, the busts on the northern side of the small cloister of the Certosa di Pavia (1464-66), ornamental sculptures of the great cloister, the Doctors of the capitals of the Tiburio (recorded by a document of 1478); the three reliefs with stories of the Passion in the Museum of the Certosa, the Madonna of the Foulc Collection, three Virtues of the Louvre, 2 Angels at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, etc., are attributed to him. The figurative language of A. presents itself instead as a development of that of his brother, and is represented by a securely dated work, the lavabo, with the Washing of the Feet of the Certosa (1488), around which may be grouped the Pietà of the door of the transept towards the small cloister, 3 panels with stories of Christ, 2 Kneeling Angels of the Castello Sforzesco, the Pietà of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and other works, probably in collaboration.
In the light of the latest research the influence exerted by the two brothers seems very vast and important; and it was fundamental for the formation of the taste that would be dominant in Lombardy in 1480-1500.