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BORGOGNONE, AMBROGIO (fl. 1473–1524)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 250 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BORGOGNONE, AMBROGIO (fl. 1473–1524) , See also:Italian painter of the Milanese school, whose real name was Ambrogio Stefani da See also:Fossano, was approximately contemporary with Leonardo da See also:Vinci, but represented, at least during a See also:great See also:part of his career, the tendencies of Lombard See also:art anterior to the arrival of that master—the tendencies which he had adopted and perfectedfrom the hands of his predecessors See also:Foppa and Zenale. We are not precisely informed of the See also:dates either of the See also:death or the See also:birth of Borgognone, who was See also:born at Fossano in See also:Piedmont, and whose appellation was due to his See also:artistic See also:affiliation to the Burgundian school. His fame is principally associated with that of one great See also:building, the Certosa, or See also:church and See also:convent of the See also:Carthusians at See also:Pavia, for which he worked much and in many different ways. It is certain, indeed, that there is no truth in the tradition which represents him as having designed, in 1473, the celebrated See also:facade of the Certosa itself. His See also:residence there appears to have been of eight years' duration, from 1486, when he furnished the designs of the figures of the virgin, See also:saints and apostles for the See also:choir-stalls, executed in tarsia or inlaid See also:wood See also:work by Bartolommeo See also:Pola, till 1494, when he returned to See also:Milan. Only one known picture, an See also:altar-piece at the church See also:San Eustorgio, can with See also:probability be assigned to a See also:period of his career earlier than 1486. For two years after his return to Milan he worked at the church of San Satiro in that See also:city. From 1497 he was engaged for some See also:time in decorating with paintings the church of the Incoronata in the neighbouring See also:town at See also:Lodi. Our notices of him thenceforth are few and far between. In 1508 he painted for a church in See also:Bergamo; in 1512 his See also:signature appears in a public document of Milan; in 1524—and this is our last See also:authentic record—he painted a See also:series of frescoes illustrating the See also:life of St Sisinius in the See also:portico of San Simpliciano at Milan. Without having produced any See also:works of See also:signal See also:power or beauty, Borgognone is a painter of marked individuality.

He holds an interesting See also:

place in the most interesting period of Italian art. The See also:National See also:Gallery, See also:London, has two See also:fair examples of his work —the See also:separate fragments of a See also:silk banner painted for the Certosa, and containing the heads of two kneeling See also:groups severally of men and See also:women; and a large altar-piece of the See also:marriage of St See also:Catherine, painted for the See also:chapel of Rebecchino near Pavia. But to See also:judge of his real See also:powers and See also:peculiar ideals—his See also:system of faint and clear colouring, whether in See also:fresco, See also:tempera or oil; his somewhat slender and pallid types, not without something that reminds us of See also:northern art in their See also:Teutonic sentimentality as well as their Teutonic fidelity of See also:portraiture; the conflict of his instinctive love of placidity and See also:calm with a somewhat forced and borrowed See also:energy in figures where energy is demanded, his conservatism in the See also:matter of storied and minutely diversified backgrounds—to judge of these qualities of the See also:master as they are, it is necessary to study first the great series of his frescoes and altar-pieces at the Certosa, and next those remains of later frescoes and altar-pieces at Milan and Lodi, in which we find the See also:influence of Leonardo and of the new time mingling with, but not expelling, his first predilections.

End of Article: BORGOGNONE, AMBROGIO (fl. 1473–1524)

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