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Benedetto Briosco and Tommaso Cazzaniga

The Flight into Egypt, 1484

Not on View

Medium

marble, partly gilded

Dimensions

overall: 61 x 61 x 13.65 cm (24 x 24 x 5 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.5.91

Artists / Makers

Benedetto Briosco (sculptor) Lombard, active 1477 - after 1514

Tommaso Cazzaniga (sculptor) Milanese, active 1481 - 1504

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Tomb of Pier Francesco Visconti, count of Saliceto [d. 1484], in S. Maria del Carmine, Milan.[1] Vercellino Visconti. Prince Belgioioso, Milan. Prince Trivulzio, Milan;[2] (Jacob Hirsch, New York), by at least May 1937;[3] purchased January 1952 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] The original location of this relief and NGA 1952.5.90 has been mistakenly given in the literature as either S. Marco in Milan or the Certosa in Pavia. They are part of a group of five reliefs with the same provenance; two others are in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and one is in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Ulrich Middeldorf, Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools, XIV-XIX Century, London, 1976: 55-57, provides a thorough discussion of their history.

Information about the two reliefs owned by the NGA came originally in a bill of sale from Jacob Hirsch to the Kress Foundation for three sculptures, including NGA 1952.5.90 and NGA 1952.5.91 (copy in NGA curatorial files). It described the reliefs as coming "from the tomb of the Dukes Saliceto Visconti once in the Certosa of Pavia," and also says they had "been in the Palace of Prince Trivulzio in Milan since the early 18th Century, apparently after the tomb had been dismantled..." In a letter of 10 January 1955 to Perry Cott (in NGA curatorial files), Hirsch writes that this information had been given verbally by the "Major Domo of the Prince Trivulzio," who said the monument had "been demolished about 1740, and the reliefs transferred at that time to the Palazzo Trivulzio in Milan." However, a letter of 22 July 1955 from Professor Gian Luigi Barni to David Finley referred to the reliefs as "della Tomba Visconti di Saliceto gia nella chiesa del Carmine di Milano," placing them in their correct original location.

[2] The Visconti, Belgioioso, and Trivulzio names are per Middeldorf 1976, 55. He writes (56 n. 9) that D. Sant'Ambrogio, Archivio Storico Lombardo, XVIII, 1891: 403, "gives a plausible account of the descent of the reliefs through these families by inheritance, without giving genealogical details."

[3] Hirsch lent the relief to an exhibition at the The Fogg Art Museum in 1937.

[4] The bill of sale (see note 1) is dated 30 January 1952.

Associated Names

Belgioioso, Prince
Hirsch, Jacob, Dr.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
S. Maria del Carmine
Trivulzio collection
Visconti, Vercellino

Exhibition History

1937: The Art of the Renaissance Craftsman, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1937.

Bibliography

1872: Catalogo delle opere d’arte antica esposte nel Palazzo di Brera: 26 agosto – 7 ottobre 1872. Exh. cat. Milan, 1872: 31-32, no. 232.

1891: Sant'Ambrogio, Diego. "Dello stemma sopravanzato nel Palazzo del Broletto del conte Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola." Archivio Storico Lombardo 18 (30 June 1891): 399-405, esp. 403 n.1.

1892: Sant'Ambrogio, Diego. "I monumenti funebri della Torre e Castiglioni nella chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milano." Archivio Storico dell'arte 5 (1892): 115-128, esp. 122.

1897: Meyer, Alfred Gotthold. Oberitalienische Frührenaissance: Bauten und Bildwerke der Lombardei. 2 vols. Berlin, 1897-1900: 2:163.

1904: Malaguzzi Valeri, Francesco. Gio. Antonio Amadeo Scultore et architetto Lombardo (1447-1522). Bergamo, 1904: 285-286.

1907: Malaguzzi Valeri, Francesco. In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 5(1911):23, 6(1912):248.

1929: Molaioli, B. "Francesco e Tommaso Cazzaniga." InEnciclopedia Italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti. Edited by Istituto Giovanni Treccani. 36 vols. Milan, 1929-1939: 9(1931):589.

1938: Ragghianti, Carlo. "La Mostra di scultura italiana antica a Detroit (U.S.A.)." Critica d'Arte 3:4–6 (fasc. 16–18) (August–December 1938): 170-183, esp. 182-183, fig. 72.

1938: Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Eighteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Catalogue of an exhibition of Italian gothic and early renaissance sculpture. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts, 1938: under no. 85.

1950: Dell'Acqua, Gian Alberto. "Problemi di scultura lombarda: Mantegazza e Amadeo (II)." Proporzioni 3 (1950):123-140, esp. 131-132, 138 nn. 23, 24.

1956: Albruzzi, Francesco Antonio. Memorie per servire alla storia de’ pittori, scultori e architetti milanesi. Milan, 1956: 84.

1956: Arslan, Edoardo. “La Scultura nella seconda meta del Quattrocento." In Giovanni Treccani degli Alfieri, ed. Storia di Milano. 17 vols. Rome, 1953-1956: 7:728-731.

1956: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 244-247, no. 100, repro., as by Lombard Master.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 413, repro., as by Lombard Master.

1959: Taggart, Ross, ed. Handbook of the collection in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, MO. 4th ed. Kansas City, 1959: 64 (15th ed., 1973: 85).

1965: Ciardi, Roberto Paolo. La Raccolta Cagnola. Milan, 1965: 92-93, n. 151.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 161, as Lombard School.

1968: Bossaglia, Rossana. "Scultura." In Maria Grazia Albertini Ottolenghi, ed.. La Certosa di Pavia. Milan, 1968: 77 n. 59.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 142, repro., as Lombard School.

1972: Mandelli, Claudia. “I primordi di Benedetto Briosco II.” Critica d’Arte 19 (1972): no. 124:41-56; no. 126:39-52, esp. 39-44, 48-49 nn. 29-32.

1976: Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 55-57.

1983: Gaborit, Jean-René. “Fragments retrouvés du tombeau de Pier Francesco Visconti, compte de Saliceto.” In La scultura decorativa del primo Rinascimento. Atti del I Convegno Internazionale di studi Pavia, 16-18 settembre 1980. Rome, 1983: 137-141, esp. 138-139.

1992: Röll, Johannes. "Benedetto Briosco" and Vigano, Antonio, "Tomasso Cazzaniga." In Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Edited by Günther Meissner. 87+ vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1992+: 14(1996):254 and 17:420.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 35, repro.

1994: Vigano, Antonio. "Il periodo Milanese di Benedetto Briosco e i suoi rapporti con i cognati Francesco e Tommaso Cazzaniga: nuove acquisizioni documentarie." Arte Lombarda 108/109 (1994):140-160, esp. 141-143, 148, 157 no. 16.

1996: Morscheck, Charles. "Cassaniga." In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 6:123.

1997: Natale, Mauro, ed. Scultura Lombarda del Rinascimento: I Monumenti Borromeo. Turin, 1997: 27, 42 nn. 64-66, 256-258, 265-266, 274 nn. 76-79, n. 87, fig. 165.

1998: Fadda, Elisabetta. “Sculture rinascimentali lombarde nei musei stranieri: alcuni esempi.” Arte Lombarda 123 (1998:2): 41-49, esp. 41, 44-46.