Ambrogio Borgognone (variously known as ''Ambrogio da Fossano'', ''Ambrogio di Stefano da Fossano'', ''Ambrogio Stefani da Fossano'' or as ''il Bergognone'' or ''Ambrogio Egogni''Dizionario biografico universal
By Gottardo Garollo, 1907, page 727. s1523/1524) was an Italian painter of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

period active in and near

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Biography

While he was nearly contemporary with

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

, he painted in a style more akin to the pre-Renaissance, Lombard art of

Vincenzo Foppa Vincenzo Foppa ( – ) was an Italian painter from the Renaissance period. While few of his works survive, he was an esteemed and influential painter during his time and is considered the preeminent leader of the Early Lombard School. He spent hi ...

and Bernardino Zenale. The dates of his birth and death are unknown; he is said to have been born at

Fossano Fossano ( pms, Fossan) is a town and ''comune'' of Piedmont, northern Italy. It is the fourth largest town of the Province of Cuneo, after Cuneo, Alba and Bra. It lies on the main railway line from Turin to Cuneo and to Savona, and has a branch l ...

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and his appellation is attributed to his artistic affiliation with the

Burgundian school The Burgundian School was a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now northern and eastern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, centered on the court of the Dukes of Burgundy. The school inaugurated the music of Burgundy. The ...

. His fame is principally associated with his work at the

Certosa di Pavia The Certosa di Pavia is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, north of Pavia. Built in 1396–1495, it was once located on the border of a large huntin ...

complex, composed of the church and convent of the

Carthusians The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has i ...

. It is unlikely he designed, in 1473, the celebrated façade of the Certosa itself. He worked there for eight years starting in 1486, in collaboration with his brother Bernardino Bergognone, when he furnished the designs of the figures of the virgin, saints and apostles for the choir stalls, executed in tarsia or inlaid woodwork by Bartolomeo Pola, till 1494, when he returned to

. Only one known picture, an altarpiece at the Basilica of Sant' Eustorgio, can with good probability be assigned to a period of his career earlier than 1486. For two years after his return to Milan, he worked at the church of San Satiro. From 1497 he was engaged for some time in decorating with paintings the church of the Incoronata in neighbouring Lodi. Documentation of him thenceforth is scant. In 1508 he painted for a church in Bergamo; in 1512, his signature appears in a public document of Milan; in 1524 and this is our last authentic record he painted a series of frescoes illustrating the life of St. Sisinius in the portico of San Simpliciano at Milan. Borgognone is considered a modestly talented painter with marked individuality. He holds an interesting place in the most interesting period of Italian art. The

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

, London, has a number or his works: the separate fragments of a silk banner painted for the Certosa, and containing the heads of two kneeling groups severally of men and women, and a large altarpiece of the marriage of St Catherine, painted for the chapel of Rebecchino near

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

. But to judge of his real powers and peculiar ideals, his system of faint and clear colouring, whether in fresco, tempera or oil; his somewhat slender and pallid types, not without something that reminds us of northern art in their Teutonic sentimentality as well as their fidelity of portraiture; the conflict of his instinctive love of placidity and calm with a somewhat forced and borrowed energy in figures where energy is demanded, his conservatism in the matter of storied and minutely diversified backgrounds to judge of these qualities of the master as they are, it is necessary to study first the great series of his frescoes and altarpieces at the Certosa, and next those remains of later frescoes and altarpieces at Milan and Lodi, in which we find the influence of Leonardo and of the new time mingling with, but not expelling, his first predilections.

Bernardino Luini Bernardino Luini (c. 1480/82 – June 1532) was a north Italian painter from Leonardo's circle during the High Renaissance. Both Luini and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were said to have worked with Leonardo directly; he was described as having ...

is said to have been one of his pupils.

Gallery

Image:Borgognone fresk.jpg, Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351–1402), with his three sons, presents a model of the Certosa di Pavia to the Virgin (

) Image:Bergognone,_Madonna_col_Bambino.jpg, Madonna and Child (

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) Image:Bergognone, Ambrogio — St Ambrose with Saints — circa 1514.jpg, St. Ambrose and Saints (

) Image:Bergognone_007.jpg, Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Catherine of Siena (

; from

)

References

Web gallery of Art

External links

''Italian Paintings: North Italian School''
a collection catalogue containing information about Bergognone and his works (see index; plates 33-45). {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergognone, Ambrogio 1470s births 1520s deaths People from Fossano 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters Painters from Milan Renaissance painters Fresco painters