Giambattista and Lorenzo Bregno

The first book ever dedicated to the brothers, Giambattista and Lorenzo Bregno, and the result of years of study, this monograph provides a definitive treatment of the lives and works of the leading sculptors of the Venetian High Renaissance. On the basis of all known, as well as newly-discovered documents, the author reconstructs the artists' biographies. First hand examination of secure works at Crema, Treviso, Cesena, Padua, and Venice furnishes stylistic criteria that permit Schulz to attribute to the sculptors a score of new works, including many never before published. Their sources, their relation to comparable Venetian works, and the development of the Bregnos' distinctive styles are thoroughly explored. Introductory and concluding chapters set the Bregnos' lives and works within the social, historical, and economic context of early Cinquecento Venice; the Bregnos' sculpture is viewed against the artistic background of contemporary painting and sculpture and the revival of antique art. An analysis of the Bregnos' patronage proves them to have been the favourite sculptors of the Venetian patriciate and recipients of the major sculptural commissions of their time.