“[There is] the much vexed question of Early Lombard Architecture, which has puzzled and is still puzzling all critics. Did a new style arise in Lombardy in the eighth and ninth centuries ? Did it invent the ribbed cross-vault and the grouped pier? Are S. Ambrogio io at Milan and S. Michele at Pavia the prototypes of the Romanesque style?--From a review of Raffaele Cattane, ​L’Architettura in Italia dal secolo VI al mille circa, in The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts , Dec., 1891.  See below excerpts from our article in the Winter 2025 issue: The Perfect City: Filarete & the Renaissance Ideal in Milan

Arms and the Men: The Art of Milanese Armaioli Winter 2025

"In a 1909 article for The Burlington Magazine, the leading historian of European armory in his day, Charles P Ffoulkes, contemplated the famous Brueghel painting seen here, Venus at the Forge of Vulgan, with an attention to detail that highlighted not only the work’s magnificence but also its record of the industrial history of its time. “It is small and in its area are crowded innumerable details connected with the craft of metalworking many of which are to be found in no other work of the period”, wrote Ffoulkes.  In the painting, an Italian backdrop is to be assumed as much from these metalworking references as much as the landscape itself, argued Ffoulkes.  Brueghel is known to have visited Italy in his earlier years and the inclusion of what appears to be Mt Etna in the distance seems obvious evidence of that fact.  Meanwhile, the metallurgical craft as shown here in various enterprises indicate that the painter may have taken inspiration from some of the workshops of a North Italian master such as Giovanni Angelo Missaglia or the Marche’s master  Bartolomeo Campi, who left to their successors or rivals the art and business of being a goldsmith, damascener and military engineer...." -
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Treasures of the Langobards: The Iron Crown of Modena    Winter 2025

"[...]The Corona Ferrea was used to crown kings and emperors, among them Charlemagne, Otto I, Berengar in 888, Henry IV in 1081, Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, Henry VII in 1311, Charles V in 1530, Napoleon I in 1805, and Ferdinand I of Austria in 1838. Brought to Vienna in 1859, it was returned to Italy in 1866 and kept in the chapel of Theodelinda in Monza[...]"Theodolina, Queen of the Lombards and Queen of Italy who saw in a dream a dove that told her Modo (now), and she replied Etiam (yes): from the two words Modoetia was originated, the Latin name of Monza. The Queen ordered a church dedicated to John the Baptist to be built in the place where she had dreamed of the dove.  During a hunt, north of Milan, in a wooded area along the river Lambro, the queen sat down to rest, fell asleep and a dove appeared in her dream. As you can see in this fresco, this dove addresses a word to the Queen, it says to her “modo”, that is “now”. The queen answered “etiam”, that is “fine, I agree”. From this brief dialogue comes the word “Modoetia” which is the Latin name of the city of Monza. In the place indicated by the dove, Theodolinda ordered to build a church dedicated to John the Baptist. Here starting from the 14th century, they were to build the great basilica, where today we can admire one of the most precious and rare collections in the world of medieval jewelry,  It is precisely in the Chapel of Theodolina that we can discover the most famous and sought-after jewelry in the Treasure of the Cathedral of Monza." [....]
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The Perfect City: Filarete & the Renaissance Ideal in Milan    Winter 2025

 "There was no special education for architects in the Italian Renaissance.  The chance to project and supervise important building enterprises was entrusted to artists, painters, sculptors--men like Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Filarete”
                                    --Hubertus Günther, Arte Lombarda (no. 155, 2009) 

"During the Renaissance authors of widely varying backgrounds wrote Utopias.  In the 15th and 16th centuries certain features of the utopias remained constant, but their aims varied as widely as their authors. There were several interesting such Utopias written following the great example of Sir Thomas Moore.  La Citta Felice of 1553 of the Platonic philosopher Franesco Patrizi da Cherso was an aristocratic utopia modeled on Plato , Aristotle and the Venetian state. Rejecting egalitarianism, Patrizi organized the city in to a rigid caste system.  La Repubblica Immaginaria of Ludovico Agostini created parallel civil and religious governments that closely supervised the physical and spiritual welfare of the city. More complete was the utopia of Anotonio Arentino called Filarete, the architect of the Sforza castle at Milan.  Filarete’s plan for a perfect city, named Sforzinda in honor of his dynamic patron was in the shape of a ergular eight pointed star with streets leading from the eight city gates located before the points of the star to the center of the city. He regulated the color of the dress and value of the jewelry worn by its inhabitants and created a system of social regulation of the schools, prisons and common utilitarian social aims. With his humanist pseudonym, Filarete was one of those personalities that sits astride two ages--the late medieval and the early Renaissance.  Published in a format of truly princely opulence by Yale University Press in 1964, J R Spencer’s translation of the Treatise is considered a landmark of Renaissance scholarship" [...] ---Please subscribe to read the rest of the article

The Great Lombard Sculptors                       Winter 2025

“One of the greatest works of sculpture in the history of the art.  Il Bambaia cut through ivory as if through butter”
                       --Bernard Berenson on the Gaston de Foix series of sculptures by 'Il Bambaia' at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan

​"The reclined figure, the Gisant, is part of a sepulchre commissioned by Francesco I, King of France, in honour of Gaston de Foix, who died in the battle of Ravenna in 1512, while still in his early 20s. The monument was destined for the Milanese church of Santa Marta, a church favoured by the filo-French aristocracy, in what today is piazza Mentana. A document dating to 1517 refers to the “superb sarcophagus”, but just a few years later the work was interrupted due to end of French domination. In the 17th century and again during the 19th century many of the sepulchral elements were dispersed and subsequently acquired by private and public collectors (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana; Turin, Palazzo Madama; London, Victoria and Albert Museum). Following the acquisition of the marbles formerly belonging to the Arconati family, from 1990 the Sforza Castle has been in possession of the most notable nucleus of the monument, including the series of apostles, the allegorical figures and the narrative reliefs, which splendidly portray the military leader’s acts of valour (room IX, XV). The reclined statue of Gaston de Foix is recognised as the master work of Agostino Busti, the most authoritative exponent of the Lombard renaissance. The virtuosity of the marble surface carvings is confined to the decorative areas, while the craftsmanship of the sculptor emerges from the serene and classic composure which finds its expression in the face of the French hero.[...]"--Please subscribe to read the rest of the article

The Leonardeschi                                                       Winter 2025

"We begin with a quote by Henry Wakefield, from his Notes on the Life and Genius of Bernardo Luini, the artist who is perhaps the most prominent of the famous "Leonardeschi", or favorite four students of Leonardo, a summary statement that perfectly captures the spirit of individuality that pervaded this famous group however profoundly they may have been influenced by their master. Wakefield writes: 'Few painters of this central period of the Renaissance have left us so long a list of noble works, and in still fewer cases is the material for study to be found so closely gathered together in the land of its birth. If the traveler will land at Luino, take the road to Lugaon (and great will be his pleasure, by the way), thence south to Legnano and Saronno to Milan, he may see all that is finest of the painting of Luini. The most obvi ous fact made clear in the contemplation of his work, that which first strikes one, is the influence of Leonardo da Vinci; his personality is inseparably linked with that influence. Whether he worked as a pupil in the academy of Leonardo at Milan is nowhere recorded. Be this as it may, it is probable that the direct connection was short. The men who were most closely identified with Leonardo have been, like Salaino, content to sink their own individuality in that of the master. As a supplement to his genius the position of Luini is of unique interest. And the role is no mean one [...]"--Please subscribe to read the rest of the article

The Certosa of Pavia                                     Winter 2025

​“As is almost universally the case with even the most splendid monuments of Lombardy, the names of the artists employed on it, do not have the ring of familiarity”--Luca Beltrami

"In a 1911 article that appeared in the bulletin of the Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences described a cast of the tomb of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, whose original is to be found at the Certosa of Pavia. Only one end of the tomb was represented by this cast, measuring 20 feet high and 7 feet wide, at the cornice, therefore leaving to the imagination “the still greater magnificence and dimensions of the original”.   The magnificence is indeed one of the spectacular attractions of the Certosa, arguably Lombardy’s most precious architectural jewel.  Gian Galeazzo Visconti was ruler of the Duchy of Milan from 1378 to 1402, in the days when its territorial power was the most important of North Italy, and he was himself the most for midable Italian prince of his day. The greatness and wealth of the Milanese at this time are suggested by the fact that their famous Cathe dral and their great Monastery, the Certosa of Pavia, were both founded by this prince. His distinctively family foundation was the monastery and church of the Certosa, and in this church, which has the most mag nificent Renaissance façade in Italy, his tomb is found. As is almost universally the case with even the most splendid monu ments of Lombardy, the names of the artists employed on it, do not have the ring of familiarity. The date of the tomb is moreover considerably later than the death of Visconti. It was begun in 1490 and designed by Galeazzo Pellegrini. The execution of the architectural details is by Giovanni Cristoforo Romano and the sculptures are by various artists. The large upper relief panels are by Antonio Amadeo of Padua. The one reproduced by the cast represents a battle of cavalry in which Gian Galeazzo was victorious. The period of this tomb is within the limits of the best Renaissance art" [...] -Please subscribe to read the rest of the article

The Woodcarving of Bergamo                                        Winter 2025

"Truly one of the most beautiful specimens of wood carving to be seen in Italy were the arabesques on the stalls of the church of St. Pietro del Casinensi, executed by Stefano da Bergamo. The most striking characteristics of the Italian Renaissance style, which blended in various ways and proportions the Gothic and ancient Roman, are shown in sideboards, cabinets, clock cases and other massive articles of furniture of circular archivolts, springing immediately from slightly relieved pilasters or carotydes, the latter being supporting figures to the entablature, grotesque, mythological, or fanciful. The pilasters have simple but usually tasteful enrichments of foliage and carved mouldings. The objects on which the energies of the early Italian wood workers were principally concentrated were cabinets, carved doors, screens, pulpits, linings to rooms, fittings to sacristies and shops, such as the spezzerie or drug stores attached to the principal monastic establishments." [...]Please subscribe to read the rest of the article

“[There is] the much vexed question of Early Lombard Architecture, which has puzzled and is still puzzling all critics. Did a new style arise in Lombardy in the eighth and ninth centuries ? Did it invent the ribbed cross-vault and the grouped pier? Are S. Ambrogio io at Milan and S. Michele at Pavia the prototypes of the Romanesque style?--From a review of Raffaele Cattane, ​L’Architettura in Italia dal secolo VI al mille circa, in The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts , Dec., 1891