Bramante and his work of Painted Façades: Bergamo and Lombardy

Abstract

Bramante, a renowned architect of the High Renaissance, is not well known for the remarkable paintings that constitute his artistic beginning, education, and development in the wake of Piero della Francesca, of Melozzo and of Mantegna, as well as Paolo Uccello and others from the circle of Urbino. His painted architectural illusions, which create complex and articulated spaces, make him a fundamental figure in the fifteenth century in Lombardy. In fact, moving from Urbino to Milan, he brought there the renewal that was developed by the Urbino circle, which was a humanistic centre of primary importance since the mid-fifteenth century. Here “on the basis of the teachings of Piero della Francesca … and not without some knowledge of Mantegna, a school of ‘perspective architects’ must have been formed” – with architects, architectural designers and painters working together. In any case, the culture of Urbino and the Paduan-Mantegnesque culture are at the basis of Donato’s education (Bruschi 1985).