BRACCESCO, Carlo
(active 1478-1501 in Liguria)

Biography

Italian painter, also known as Carlo da Milano. He is first documented in 1478, when he executed the polyptych at Montegrazie, near Imperia; signed Carolus Mediolanensis, this large, three-tiered structure appears to be his only signed painting. An essentially Late Gothic, Lombard basis is agreed for this work, the complex sources of which also include Catalan and Venetian influences, the latter suggesting an affinity with such artists as Carlo Crivelli.

Braccesco is also recorded (as Carlo da Milano) between 1481 and 1501 in a series of documents, mostly Genoese, relating to important commissions (all untraced). In 1481-82 he decorated the façade of the Palazzo delle Compere, Genoa, with a St George on Horseback. Between 1482 and 1484 he and Ambrogio de' Fiori produced four stained-glass windows for the chapel of S Sebastiano in Genoa Cathedral, then frescoed the walls, apse and exterior arch of the same chapel. In 1484 he undertook to paint a polyptych depicting the Assumption of the Virgin for the Carmelites of S Maria degli Angeli. By 1492 he had probably executed a polyptych depicting the Virgin and Child for the unidentified locality of Belgandura.

By 1494 he had completed a Maestà for the Commune of Levanto, and in that year or immediately afterwards he frescoed the chapel of the Nativity in the church of Nostra Signora del Monte, Genoa. In 1497 Cristoforo della Torre, who had been commissioned to paint the organ case of Genoa Cathedral, arranged for Braccesco to paint six Saints on the shutters and a monochrome Annunciation on the outer face. In 1500 Braccesco may have participated in the decoration of the caminata (large hall) in the palazzo of Antonio Lomellini: Giacomo di Bartolomeo Serfolio and Leonoro dell' Aquila arranged for twelve medallions and four heraldic emblems to be painted on the frieze, either by Braccesco or by Stradioto. The document of 1501 refers to a commission to paint a polyptych of the Assumption of the Virgin, to be modelled on the one made by Giovanni Mazone for Baldassare Lomellini in S Teodoro, Genoa.



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