BREGNO, Italian family of sculptors and architects
Members of the family were active in the 15th century and the early 16th. One of the most important and extensive family dynasties in Italian Renaissance sculpture, the Bregni came from the village of Righeggia, near Osteno on Lake Lugano. Active primarily in northern Italy (Lombardy, Emilia, and the Veneto), a few Bregni also worked in central Italy. Several Bregno artists are documented, although the precise familial relationship between most of them is still unclear. The most important artists in the family were Antonio Bregno I and his brother Paolo Bregno (active in Venice c. 1425–c. 1460), Andrea Bregno, Giovanni Battista Bregno and Lorenzo Bregno. Associated with Andrea Bregno were two of his brothers: Ambrogio Bregno (d. before 1504) and Girolamo Bregno (d. after 1504); a son Marcantonio Bregno; one Antonio Bregno II; and Domenico Bregno [il Brieno]. The last three assisted with various architectural projects during the 1470s and 1480s, although their roles are not specified. Other Bregni briefly mentioned in documents, and about whom little is known, include Antonio di Pietro Bregno, active for a while with Giovanni Battista Bregno in Venice in 1509, and Cristoforo di Ambrogio Bregno [Brignono], who is documented with his brother Giovanni Antonio Bregno in Ferrara in 1502.
