Gothic art in Milan

tradition c. 1282-1447 Milan Italy

Gothic art in Milan spans the city's Visconti age, conventionally from the family's rise in 1282 to the collapse of the seignory in 1447. The style arrived early through the Cistercians - the abbey of Chiaravalle, consecrated in 1221, and Viboldone, whose facade was completed in 1348 - but took hold only when Azzone Visconti (1329-1339) imported Tuscan artists and built San Gottardo in Corte with its octagonal bell tower. Under Gian Galeazzo Visconti the Fabbrica del Duomo, founded in 1386, became the largest Gothic building site in Italy, drawing French, German and Flemish masters who argued over proportions while sculptors like Giovannino de' Grassi, Jacopino da Tradate and Matteo Raverti filled the marble with saints. Civic Gothic followed in the black-and-white Loggia degli Osii (1316), and the apse glass, with the radiant Visconti sun designed by Michelino da Besozzo, closes the age.

Milano - Abside del Duomo
Milano - Abside del DuomoCC BY-SA 3.0 (credit: MarkusMark) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Lombard vernacular Gothic: brick and terracotta facades banded with white marble
  • Octagonal lanterns and bell towers rising over square presbyteries
  • Gabled fronts with rose windows, bifore and trifore in molded terracotta
  • Dense exterior statuary: individualized saints, deep-cut drapery, expressive faces
  • Monumental stained glass - a European 'laboratory' of the art - including the radiant Raza Viscontea

Key figures

  • Azzone Visconti (1302-1339) — Lord whose patronage (1329-1339) brought Tuscan artists to Milan and built San Gottardo in Corte
  • Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351-1402) — First duke of Milan and driving patron behind the Fabbrica del Duomo from 1386
  • Giovannino de' Grassi (c. 1350-1398) — Architect-sculptor-illuminator of the cathedral site and the south sacristy architrave
  • Michelino da Besozzo (c. 1370-c. 1455) — International Gothic painter who designed the radiant Visconti sun (Raza) in the apse glass

Example works

Sources

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