Federico Brandani

Federico Brandani (1522/1525 – 1575) was an Italian sculptor and stuccoist who worked in an urbane Mannerist style as a court artist of Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino.

Born in Urbino, between 1538 and 1541 Brandani was apprenticed there to Giovanni Maria di Casteldurante, a maiolica artist [ [http://www.groveart.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=453588010&hitnum=1&section=art.010899|Grove Encyclopedia of Art] .] .

There are stucco wall and ceiling decorations by Brandani in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino. His masterpiece is considered to be his "presepio" , a nativity scene with life-size stucco figures, which is in the Oratory of the Church of San Giuseppe, Urbino.

For Guidobaldo's wedding with Vittoria Farnese in 1548 Brandani was one of the team that embellished the Palazzo Ducale in Pesaro, where he collaborated with Taddeo Zuccari and Ludovico Carracci. In 1551-53 he worked for Pope Julius III at Villa Giulia, Rome, "if, as seems probable, Brandani is the 'Federigo d'Urbino stuccatore' to whom payments are recorded for work 'alle fontane' of the Villa Giulia between September 1552 and June 1553". [J. A. Gere, "Taddeo Zuccaro as a Designer for Maiolica" "The Burlington Magazine" 105 No. 724 (July 1963, pp. 304, 306-315) p. 310 note; also Paola Hoffman, "Scultori e stuccatori a Villa Giulia: Inediti di Federico Brandani", "Rivista di critica e storia d'arte" 18 New Series 1967:48-66.]

From the mid-1550s, Brandani worked on stucco ceilings and other decorations in the Palazzo Tirrani-Castracane in Cagli for Felice Tiranni. He completed that work in about 1571, when he executed "Vulcan's Forge" over the fireplace in the Salone. [ [http://www.comune.cagli.ps.it/guide/tiranuk.htm Alberto Mazzacchera, "Palazzo Tiranni"] ] . He contributed five high-relief panels to a vaulted ceiling in Palazzo Corboli, Urbino, adapting designs by Taddeo Zuccari, who was working at Villa Giulia when Brandani was there. [This ceiling was reinstalled in the Palazzo Ducale in 1918; the designs of the high-relief vignettes by Taddeo Zuccari, were originally intended for a maiolica service (J. A. Gere, "Taddeo Zuccaro as a Designer for Maiolica" "The Burlington Magazine" 105 No. 724 (July 1963, pp. 304, 306-315) pp.309f).] He also worked on Palazzetto Baviera in Senigallia (1560); [ [http://www.comune.senigallia.an.it/altri/urbanistica/pagine%20centro%20storico/baviera.htm Illustrations] .] and Palazzo Rocca in Fabriano. [Antonio Antonelli, "Contributi a Federico Brandani", "Notizie da Palazzo Albani" 2.2 (1973) pp 43-49.] Towards the end of his life he executed stucco decorations in the Castello Brancaleoni, Piobbico, for Antonio II di Monaldo (d.1598) [Serra, in "Rassegna Marchigiana" 9 (1930-31), pp 15-32] and in the Urbino chapel at the Basilica of the Holy House, Loreto, commissioned by Guidobaldo in 1571-72. [Luigi Serra, "Federico Brandani e le sculture della Santa Casa di Loreto," Dalla casa Vasari, Arezzo, 1930.] Another late work is the bas-relief of the "Martyrdom of Saint Catherine" in the Church of Santa Catarina, Urbino.

A bronze bust of the courtier poet and diplomat Antonio Galli (1510-61) at the Frick Collection, New York, formerly attributed to Leone Leoni, was reattributed to Brandani by John Pope-Hennessy. [John Pope-Hennessy, "The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue. Vol. III: Sculpture; Italian" (New York: Abrams); the attribution did not convince Jennifer Montague, reviwing the catalogue in "The Burlington Magazine" 114 No. 831 (June 1972), p 411; [http://collections.frick.org/Obj438$22420 Illustration of the bust] .] Galli also served Guidobaldo della Rovere, as tutor to his son and as his ambassador at Rome and Venice. The bust, identified as Galli by a later inscription on the base, is the only bronze casting attributed to this sculptor, and the only portrait.

Brandani was virtually forgotten until he was brought into focus as the premier sixteenth-century sculptor in Le Marche by Luigi Serra in the 1920s. [Serra, "Intorno a Federico Brandani" in "Rassegna Marchigiana" 4 (1925-26), pp.134-142; Serra, "Brandani e Gianbologna", in "Rassegna Marchigiana", 9 (1930-31), pp 200-203; Serra "L'arte nelle Marche. II: Il periodo dell rinascimento" (Rome) ca 1935.]

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External links

* [http://www.fondazionecarifano.it/metauro/MetauroWeb/Tema09/Arc397.htm Federico Brandani]