EARLY RENAISSANCE SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE AT CASTIGLIONE OLONA IN NORTHERN ITALY AND THE PATRONAGE OF A HUMANIST, CARDINAL BRANDA CASTIGLIONE (LOMBARDY, FRANCO-FLEMISH)

The early Renaissance art at Castiglione Olona presents northern Italian traditions influenced by styles from Italy and beyond the Alps. The biography of Cardinal Branda traces his extensive travels to northern and eastern Europe and his friendships with rulers and humanists. His commissions between about 1422 and 1442 transformed his town into a Renaissance city. This dissertation considers two interrelated themes: the patronage of the cardinal and the styles of the art.;The major sculptures at Castiglione Olona are closely related in style, displaying a clear structure and balance, natural drapery, and a calm monumental spirit. Previous studies confused Lombard, Venetian, and Florentine concepts without defining the sources of this style. This research shows the sculpture was developed from the tradition of the Ticino with insights from the style of Brabant. The sculptors are identified in this dissertation as Filippo and Andrea da Carona, named in the accounts of the Giovanni Borromeo tomb. Two damaged terracotta apostles apparently commissioned by Branda for the Collegiata have their closest cognates at Halle, near Brussels. Influenced by this source of the northern style, the Carona sculptors carved an altarpiece there, and the Chiesa di Villa pediment and putto frieze, the baptismal font, and the cardinal's tomb at Castiglione Olona. The Collegiata lunette depends on another Franco-Flemish style, from Tournai, seen especially in a relief over the gateway to La Ferte-Milon. Branda's choice of northern sculptural styles for prototypes and the interconnection among the commissions reflect this humanist's interest in the expression of Renaissance naturalism combined with the clarity of simplified forms.;The Collegiata revives an older Milanese type due to the Cardinal's admiration of bright European hall churches. The Chiesa di Villa, with its centralized plan representing the tomb of Christ, is a very contemporary Brunelleschian chapel. Branda's palace addition depends on Lombard traditions with ideas developed during his sojourn in Rome. While the different architectural styles express aspects of the patron's virtu in rebuilding his city, innovations in spatial relationships by the Florentine painter Masolino da Panicale help present the cardinal's religious and political statements.