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[Aleši, Andrija; Alexii, Andreas; Andrea di Niccolò da Durazzo]

(b Dürres, c. 1425; d Split, 1504).

Dalmatian sculptor and architect of Albanian birth. Although he is recorded in 1435 at Zadar as a pupil of Marco di Pietro da Troia, his most important artistic influence was the Late Gothic style of Giorgio da Sebenico, with whom he worked in 1445 on Šibenik Cathedral and in 1452 at Ancona on the Loggia dei Mercanti. Between 1448 and 1460 Alessi also controlled his own workshop at Split and Rab. In 1466 he began work on his masterpiece, the baptistery at Trogir, which was finished in 1467. The chapel is rectangular in plan, covered with a barrel vault with acute angled coffers; its richly decorated interior is an eclectic blend of Late Gothic and Renaissance elements. The sculpture shares these characteristics: the Baptism of Christ over the entrance, with its elongated figures and complex drapery patterns, derives from Giorgio da Sebenico’s mannered style, while St Jerome in the Desert...

(b ?London, c. 1470; d ?London, 1532).

English goldsmith. He was the son of a London goldsmith and was the most successful goldsmith working at the Tudor court; his work bridged the transition between the Gothic and the Renaissance styles. He was an official at the Mint from 1504 to almost the end of his life, his appointment possibly facilitated by his marriage to Elizabeth, granddaughter of Sir Hugh Bryce (d 1496), Court Goldsmith to Henry VIII. In 1524 Amadas became the first working goldsmith to become Master of the Jewel House to Henry VIII, an office he retained until 1532, supplying spangles, wire and ribbons to the court. In the 1520s his orders included a large amount of plate for gifts to foreign ambassadors; he also supplied a number of New Year’s gifts for the court. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was one of Amadas’ most important clients, and Amadas supplied him with a number of lavish objects. Other clients included ...

(b Perugia, c. 1420; d Perugia, July 8, 1496).

Italian painter. He was almost certainly trained in Perugia between 1430 and 1440, where a Late Gothic style was still dominant. Subsequently he was influenced by Fra Angelico, whose polyptych (Perugia, G.N. Umbria) for S Domenico, Perugia, was commissioned in 1437, and more importantly by Domenico Veneziano, who worked in that city c. 1438. The influence of Domenico Veneziano and of Gentile da Fabriano can be seen in Bonfigli’s earliest surviving work, a polyptych (now dismembered), which had a central panel of the Virgin and Child (El Paso, TX, Mus. A.), shown against a densely wooded background, and St Sebastian and a Bishop Saint (Monserrat, Mus.) on one wing. Another wing (untraced) shows St Bernardino of Siena and St Anthony Abbot. Bonfigli is first documented on 7 March 1445, when he undertook to paint a Virgin and Child with Two Angels (untraced) for a chapel near S Pietro, Perugia. A votive fresco of ...

Castle in Breda, north Brabant, Netherlands. It is one of the first examples of monumental Renaissance architecture in the Netherlands, constructed at a time (1530s) when large buildings there were still dominated by the Late Gothic style from Brabant. A fortress had stood on the site since the 13th century. In 1515–21 Count Henry III of Nassau (1483–1538) commissioned a gallery on the curtain wall and a portal, both with ornate pediments (destr.), which was the first known piece of Renaissance architecture in the Netherlands. In 1536 Henry initiated more thoroughgoing alterations, with the intention of replacing the Gothic castle with a modern palace. The design comprised a rectangular layout around a large courtyard overlooked by an arcade. From the courtyard a stately, covered double staircase led to the double-height great hall on the first floor, which occupied the entire west wing. The ground floor below this hall was originally an open hall of columns. This design was finally completed in ...

[Heinrich; Henryk]

(b ?1360–65; d after 1428).

German architect. Brunsberg’s work represents an important decorative phase of brick Gothic architecture in western Pomerania. There is documentary evidence for his work at St Katharinen, Brandenburg, and a further three buildings are attributed to him on stylistic grounds. His name appears on a brick inscription on the north side of St Katharinen between the Lady chapel portals: Anno d[o]m[ini] MCCCCI co[n]structa e[st] h[aec] ecc[lesi]a in die assu[m]ptionis Mariae virginis per magistru[m] Hinricu[m] Brunsbergh d[e] Stet[t]in (Master Hinrich Brunsberg of Szczecin (Ger. Stettin) built St Katharinen in 1401). Brunsberg is also mentioned 28 times in the town records of Szczecin between 1400 and 1428; in each case he is referred to as master in the context of either owing or being owed money. All his architectural activity was concentrated in the area between Brandenburg and Szczecin.

Brunsberg rebuilt the nave of St Katharinen, a five-bay hall construction, after the old nave collapsed in ...

(b Lyon, April 22, 1827; d Florence, Sept 21, 1888).

French collector. His father Jean-Baptiste Carrand (1792–1871) was a collector of medieval and Renaissance decorative objects (Byzantine and Gothic ivories, Renaissance maiolica, enamelwork, arms, bronzes and coins) and a connoisseur of manuscripts and documents, first in Lyon and then in Paris, where Louis worked in partnership with him. Their most prestigious purchases were some early medieval and Gothic ivory pieces and the famous flabellum (9th century, court of Charles the Bald) from the Benedictine abbey of Tournus in Burgundy. In 1867 they exhibited ivories, bronzes, arms, wood-carvings and secular gold items in the Exposition Universelle, Paris. After his father’s death Louis continued to enlarge the collection. In particular he added early medieval and Renaissance textiles. In 1880 he moved to Nice and in 1881 to Pisa, where he remained until 1886, continuing to buy artefacts not only from French and Italian sales but also from England, Germany, Greece and Turkey. In ...

(di Marco)

(b Venice, fl ?1458–76).

Italian sculptor and architect. He was active in Romagna and the Marches, working in a transitional style between Gothic and Renaissance, influenced by Venetian taste. His first known work is the signed, but undated low stone relief depicting the Lion of St Mark (c. 1458–60) set into the brickwork over the entrance to the Rocca Brancaleone at Ravenna. In 1462 he was at Amandola, in the Marches, and was then called to the nearby town of Fermo to execute a commission (probably the Late Gothic mixtilinear arch that frames the entrance to the Euffreducci Chapel in the church of S Francesco). In 1465 he completed the door, in Istrian stone and Red Verona marble, of Forlì Cathedral (removed 1841; reconstructed with slight modifications in 1915 for the façade of the Carmelite church), the decorative style of which derives from Renaissance Tuscany. In 1468 he created a portal for the church of S Agostino, Amandola, which combines Romanesque and Late Gothic elements....

Italian family of painters. (1) Lorenzo Costa (i) was one of the leading artists of the school of Ferrara. His work is a link between the Late Gothic style of Cosimo Tura and that of the High Renaissance. His son (2) Ippolito Costa spent ten years as an artist at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. (3) Lorenzo Costa (ii) was probably the son of Ippolito and, except for a period in Rome, spent most of his career in Mantua, particularly working on decorations in the Palazzo Ducale.

(b Ferrara, c. 1460; d Mantua, March 5, 1535).

He was the son of a painter, Giovanni Battista (?)Costa, and he received his early training in the studio of Ercole de’ Roberti in Ferrara. Probably in the early 1480s he moved to Bologna, where he became the favoured artist of Giovanni II Bentivoglio (see Bentivoglio family §(2)). Major commissions for Bolognese churches suggest that at one time he was the most sought-after artist in Bologna....

(b ?1438; d Florence, 1503).

Italian mason and architect. He is first recorded in Pisa (1462–3) with other Lombard stonecutters employed to carve the marble tracery for the Gothic windows of the Camposanto (cemetery), adjacent to the cathedral. From 1472 he is recorded as a master mason, responsible for the completion of the church of Santo Spirito, Florence (begun 1436), in accordance with the design by Brunelleschi; Salvi was also responsible for the supply of materials and the repair of tools. In 1475 he was appointed principal mason for the outstanding decorative work of the church, including the upper cornice of the nave, the dome and the façade. He constructed a working model of the dome of Santo Spirito, based on the original model by Brunelleschi, for the office of works. This was the first dome in Florence to have a hemispherical external profile. In May 1482 Salvi was commissioned to decorate the interior of the façade of Santo Spirito, and in ...

[Master of the Halepagen Altar]

(b Lübeck, c. 1460; d Hamburg, 1528).

German Late Gothic painter. His Lübeck origins are demonstrated stylistically in his contribution to the altar of the Lübeck Corpus Christi Brotherhood (1496; Lübeck, St Annen-Mus.). In 1499 he probably married a woman previously married, in succession, to Hans Bornemann, Hinrik Funhof, and Absalon Stumme (fl c. 1486–98): this enabled him to become established in Hamburg as a workshop proprietor. Both Stumme and his wife’s son Henrik Bornemann died that year. Dedeke’s first task was therefore to complete their work on the wings of the St Luke altar for the Jakobikirche in Hamburg. He was accepted into the painters’ guild in 1500: in 1502 he became master of the Brotherhood of St Thomas. After his second surviving altarpiece in Hamburg, for the Company of Fishers (1508; Jakobikirche), he probably remained the leading artist of Hamburg until his death.

Dedeke’s style remained basically unchanged from the Corpus Christi altar. Of this now incomplete double-winged altarpiece, with a carved shrine by ...

(Ghezzi)

(b Asciano, Siena, c. 1400; d Siena, before 1445).

Italian painter. His few surviving works show that he played a pivotal role in the movement from Gothic painting to the Renaissance style in Siena during the 15th century. He is first documented in 1420, as an apprentice on an unidentified project for Siena Cathedral, and his name appears near the end of the Ruolo dei pittori, the list of the painters’ guild compiled from 1428.

Inferences about Domenico’s artistic education are suggested by the first work securely assignable to him, a small panel of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with SS Peter and Paul (Washington, DC, N.G.A.). This shows an early awareness of Florentine art of the 1420s and complete familiarity with the new artistic language of the Renaissance. The architectural setting, in classical style, is apparently inspired by the new conception of the altarpiece as a sacra conversazione, favoured by Fra Angelico at the beginning of the 1420s. The Virgin, housed in a shell niche, is crowned with a garland held by putti reminiscent of Donatello. She sits firmly and solemnly on a marble throne, holding the muscular child. The composition is a free variation on a model by Masaccio, whose early work, like Domenico’s, shares many features with the sculpture of Luca della Robbia. Another Florentine element, apparently derived from Paolo Uccello, is the halo with star points, also used by Domenico in later works. The strongly Florentine orientation of this early work refutes the theory that he was trained by ...

[Benedetto da Firenze]

(fl 1453; d Bellinzona [now Switzerland], Oct 1, 1479).

Italian architect and military engineer. He was one of the first architects in 15th-century Milan to abandon Gothic forms and to introduce elements of the Florentine Renaissance. Although his activity in the service of the dukes of Milan, Francesco Sforza (see Sforza family, §1) and Galeazzo Maria Sforza, is confirmed by numerous documents, very few buildings survive that can be ascribed to Ferrini. In 1461, he was sent to Venice to work on the palace bought by Francesco Sforza, but the attribution to Ferrini of the façade fragment of the so-called Ca’ del Duca at Venice can no longer be sustained. His name has, however, been more securely linked with parts of Milan Castle, which he converted (1472–6) into a residence equipped for the requirements of a Renaissance prince. There, he worked on the Corte Ducale with its extensive apartments, and he designed a courtyard arcade with flanking pilasters in the Florentine manner. He was responsible for planning the entire decoration of the Cappella Ducale, and he worked on the Rocchetta, which was used as the state treasury....

Spanish family of architects. They were important in the change from Gothic to Renaissance architecture in 16th-century Spain, working mainly in Castile. Juan Gil de Hontañón (the elder) linked the Hispano-Flemish (Isabelline) style of Late Gothic to the beginnings of Plateresque, which was further developed by his son Juan Gil de Hontañón (the younger). Another, illegitimate, son Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón is regarded as particularly representative of Spanish Renaissance architecture.

Gil de Hontañón, Juan (the elder)

Gil de Hontañón, Juan (the younger)

Gil de Hontañón, Rodrigo

(fl 1518–66).

Sicilian goldsmith. His early work is Gothic, notably a magnificent processional monstrance with Gothic spires (1536–8; Enna, Mus. Alessi) and a reliquary of S Agata (1532; Palermo Cathedral). From the 1540s he adopted a Renaissance style, as exemplified by a crozier (Palermo, Gal. Reg. Sicilia) and a reliquary of S Cristina (Palermo Cathedral)....

(b Naples, May 14, 1718; d Naples, March 8, 1785).

Italian architect and theorist. He began his training in 1732 with the architect Martino Buoncore, whose style he later dismissed as ‘Gothic’. However, Buoncore had a good architectural library, in which Gioffredo studied the writings of Palladio, Vitruvius and Vincenzo Scamozzi. During the same period he studied with the painter Francesco Solimena, believing an understanding of the human body to be an essential part of architecture.

Gioffredo qualified as an architect in 1741, after being examined by Giovanni Antonio Medrano (b 1703), one of the kingdom’s engineers. Unfortunately his technical education was somewhat neglected, and he earned for himself the sobriquet ‘l’imprudente architetto napoletano’ after Luigi Vanvitelli was called in to work on his Villa Campolieto (1762), Resina, and the Palazzo Casacalenda (c. 1766), Naples, both of which were in danger of collapse.

Gioffredo’s architectural knowledge was largely acquired from books and from the direct study of ancient buildings. In the preface to his ...

(b ?Carasa, Cantabria, c. 1480; d Salamanca, May 11, 1526).

Spanish architect. From his early youth he lived in Rascafría, Madrid, and he may have worked under the direction of Juan Guas on the building of the Paular convent, a Hispano-Flemish building that has many links with the monastery of El Parral, Segovia. In 1500 he was working on a portal at Sigüenza Cathedral. In 1503 he designed S Antolín, Medina del Campo (Valladolid). This is a hall church, a type that became popular in the 16th century.

During the first decade of the 16th century, Juan was Master Mason of Palencia Cathedral; in 1508, thanks to the intervention of the bishop, he was granted a royal pardon for his part in the death of Andrés de Segovia. During this period, he worked on S Clara, Briviesca (Burgos), where he followed the model of the Capilla del Condestable in Burgos Cathedral; the parish church of Coca is also attributed to him because its trefoil plan is based on that of El Parral....

Term for a style of German architecture in which Gothic-style details are imposed on Renaissance buildings. The name derives from Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (1545–1617), Bishop of Würzburg, who, in his efforts on behalf of the Counter-Reformation, developed a taste for the earlier architecture of the faith. Examples of the style include the small rose window (...

(fl 1490; d Schwabach, nr Nuremberg, Jan 1509).

German sculptor and architect. He was a leading sculptor of the final phase of the Late Gothic period in Germany. His many works in stone, which range from monumental sculptures for public places to decorative ornaments for private residences, were commissioned primarily by Nuremberg patrons, between 1490 and 1509. Most of these works remain in the city although only a small number are still in situ.

Kraft’s origin, training and early experience are conjectural. It has been suggested that he was born in Nuremberg and first worked as a stonemason’s apprentice on the architectural decoration of the hall choir of St Lorenz. Several widely scattered monuments have been postulated as evidence of his work as a journeyman, including the eucharistic tabernacle in Ulm Minster (1464–71), Hans Hammer’s pulpit in Strasbourg Cathedral and the monuments for Archbishop Dieter von Isenburg and Adalbert von Sachsen (d 1484) in Mainz Cathedral....