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The Certosa at Pavia was for many years the focal point of sculptural activity in Lombardy, and it is a veritable museum of Late Quattrocento Lombard sculpture. The façade of the Certosa with its figures and reliefs swamped by a riot of ornamental carving is far closer akin in spirit to transalpine late Gothic than to the classicism of Padua. Of the many sculptors working on the façade, the most striking are the Mantegazza brothers who, while remaining strongly influenced by the Gothic, developed the emotional possibilities in handling of the drapery. Their characteristic "clinging wet" or "crumpled paper" draperies evolved from those of Donatello via Bellano, but the haggard, gaunt faces owe a heavy debt to North Italian Late Gothic terracotas, as well as to the late Donatello.
The Mantegazza brothers (Cristoforo and Antonio) cannot be stylistically separated, thus the statue of the Prophet shown on the picture can be the work of either Cristoforo or Antonio.
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