Mausoleo Martinengo

About

The Martinengo mausoleum is a funerary monument made through the use of various marbles and bronze (465x360x126 cm) by Gasparo Cairano, Bernardino delle Croci and probably the Sanmicheli workshop, dated between 1503 and 1518 and preserved in the museum of Santa Giulia in Brescia, in the nuns' choir. The monument, of undisputed artistic and historical value, is one of the most emblematic artifacts attributable to the current of Brescian Renaissance sculpture: the work focuses on architectural and artistic purity, refinement of colors through the use of ancient marbles, many of them probably salvaged, and mythological iconography, the aim of which is the utmost celebration of the deceased for whom the mausoleum is intended.

The origins and dating of the Martinengo mausoleum have constituted perhaps the greatest misunderstanding in the historiography of Brescian Renaissance art, generating in turn another series of errors and erroneous presumptions, first among them the unfounded attribution of the work to Maffeo Olivieri. The real history of the monument, still partially incomplete, has only been known since 1977, due to a discovery made by historian Camillo Boselli: a series of documents in this regard have profoundly distorted the knowledge acquired about the work until then. The following paragraphs, therefore, outline the history of the mausoleum that can actually be reconstructed today on the basis of the documents of the time, mentioning only at a later stage the outdated version.

The original contract for commissioning the mausoleum was made on May 29, 1503, between the two brothers Francesco and Antonio II Martinengo of Padernello and the Brescian goldsmith Bernardino delle Croci. The deed specifies that the monument, to be placed in the Church of the Most Holy Body of Christ, is made in deference to the testamentary will of the father of the two, Bernardino Martinengo of Padernello, who died in 1501 or 1502.

This arrangement, in turn, is contextual to a kind of dynastic tradition initiated by the latter's father, Antonio I Martinengo di Padernello, progenitor of this specific branch of the family. The latter, having financed the work of enlarging the choir of the church of San Francesco d'Assisi in Brescia in 1464, had received from the friars the right to use it exclusively as a burial place, both for himself and for his descendants. However, having renounced this prerogative, he preferred to opt for a more conspicuous solution, such as the construction of a kind of "family church," precisely the church of the Most Holy Body of Christ. The new religious building and the adjoining monastery were built by the Jesuati order, starting around 1467, by almost complete contribution of Martinengo, who left as a testamentary disposition, in 1473, to be buried there. The commission of the mausoleum is therefore to be framed within this single, grand project: to bring together in one place, specially dedicated and designed, the burials of the Martinengo family of Padernello.

The detailed contract describes the features to be assumed by the mausoleum, immediately decreeing a certain artistic value, and a series of details about the materials and some figures such as an " imagibus [...] in forma pietatis " at the top= The document also mentions a project outlined on a sheet of paper, attached to the contract and later lost. The completion of the work was set to take three years, in return for a fee to Delle Croci of 500 ducats, with the possibility of raising it to 600 depending on the judgment on the finished work.

From economic disputes to the blocking of the commission

The delivery deadline of 1506, however, was not met by the goldsmith. Two subsequent deeds dated to that year demonstrate the existence of an economic dispute between Delle Croci and the Martinengo commission, the causes of which had led to the degeneration of the relationship between the two and the blocking of the project. In the first document, dated May 13, 1506, Antonio II Martinengo claims to be indebted to the goldsmith for 300 ducats, of which 200 were for miscellaneous expenses related to the erecting of the mausoleum and a certain amount of silverware that the Martinengo family had received from Delle Croci without paying him, and 100 for money received on loan from the goldsmith. It is likely that the expenses related to the mausoleum concerned the procurement of the basic, admittedly expensive, materials, the expense of which had not yet been settled by the patron. To settle the dispute, Antonio II Martinengo turned the debt owed to the goldsmith over to a certain Gerolamo di Lazzaro, who owed the nobleman 300 ducats. The document attests that the arrangement was accepted and signed by all three parties involved.

However, the reconciliation was short lived. Six months later, in a deed dated November 6, 1506, Antonio II Martinengo again attests that he owes Delle Croci 1,000 lire, i.e. about 300 ducats, moreover for the same reason, i.e. various expenses related to the mausoleum and a pecuniary loan from the goldsmith to the nobleman. The document, moreover, confirms the death of Francesco Martinengo, brother of Antonio II and commissioner of the monument together with him. Again, all parties accept and sign the transfer of the debt to Bernardino delle Croci from Antonio II to a certain Ottolino di Sant'Ottolino, who owed the nobleman the same amount. Therefore, it becomes clear how Delle Croci's failure to deliver the mausoleum was actually caused by the non-payment of the Martinengo commission, which had not even covered the first expenses of purchasing materials, in addition to not repaying the goldsmith two loans he had obtained.

After this act, the documentary sequence is interrupted for a full 10 years. During this time, the European political climate became overheated, shortly leading to the events of the War of the League of Cambrai and the first French incursions into Brescia, culminating in the sack of Brescia in 1512 by the French, led by Gaston of Foix-Nemours. The latter, besides throwing the city into ruin, debunked the so-called myth of Brixia magnipotens. The Martinengo family, which had always been pro-Venetian, experienced difficult times, during which the commission to Delle Croci, concerning a golden age for the economy and the arts that had come to an end, was completely shelved.

In 1516, the year of the reconquest of Brescia by Venice, the last document relating to this aforementioned commission is ultimately recorded. In the deed, dated August 6, 1516, one finds a now exhausted Antonio II Martinengo going so far as to cede to Delle Croci two masonry houses owned by him, worth 800 lire each but offered at the price of only 200, in exchange for the goldsmith's "solemn promise" to complete the work within a year and a half, thus by January 1518. In the event of non-compliance with the agreement, Delle Croci would incur penalties agreed upon by the same contract, relating to the rights to the two houses ceded. A detail of particular importance is the specification of how the mausoleum, although still being worked on, was already installed inside the church of the Most Holy Body of Christ (" inceptum in ecclesia Jesuatorum Brixie "); although the condition in which the mausoleum was at the time cannot be determined, it is certain that its completion still required a year and a half of work.

Of interest, in this regard, is what is reported in the will of Antonio II, drawn up the previous year (1515): in the act, the nobleman arranges to be buried inside the mausoleum, specifying that the body of his father Bernardino already rested inside it. The state of the mausoleum as of 1515, therefore, must not be too far from completion: Antonio II's statement suggests that the monument was finished at least in its main parts, such as the stone structure. The fact that Bernardino Martinengo's body had already found a place inside it, moreover, could be the reason for such a pressing need to complete it.

The Martinengo mausoleum became a permanent part of the Church of the Most Holy Body of Christ from at least the 1520s.

On July 24, 1526, about ten years after the conclusion of the previous documentary events, cavalry captain Marcantonio Martinengo della Pallata was severely wounded while fighting against the Spanish army around Cremona. The nobleman, a noted man-at-arms and great-grandson of Bartolomeo Colleoni, died four days later in Brescia, where he had been transported to be treated. Pandolfo Nassino, a Brescian historian of the time, relates the episode and describes the solemn funeral, celebrated by Mattia Ugoni, during which the captain was buried in the church of the Most Holy Body of Christ, inside the Martinengo family mausoleum in Padernello. This fact can be explained by noting how the two branches of the family were closely linked: that of the Martinengo della Pallata had been generated by breaking away from that of the Martinengo di Padernello through Gaspare Martinengo, son of Antonio I, founder of the church of the Most Holy Body of Christ, a place that therefore had significance for both families. It was also Gaspare who had brought the Martinengo della Pallata branch into the line of inheritance with Bartolomeo Colleoni, marrying a legitimate daughter, and later becoming the grandfather of Marcantonio Martinengo.

However, no evidence from the period or later testimonies attest to the affixing of any kind of tombstone or inscription at the captain's burial. A tombstone reported as such by Paolo Guerrini in 1930 is not to be considered as belonging to the mausoleum and to Marcantonio Martinengo, since it was later identified as a tombstone whose text was transcribed by Sebastiano Aragonese shortly after the mid-sixteenth century, who read on it the date "MDL" (1550), later abraded. Nevertheless, the Martinengo mausoleum became known as the mausoleum of Marcantonio Martinengo, just as the quality and composition of its ornaments were to suggest to future scholars, in relation to the importance of the captain.

Thus was born the great misunderstanding about the monument's origins, which would weigh on its history for nearly five hundred years. The testamentary will of Bernardino Martinengo, the commission and contract between Bernardino Delle Croci and the nobleman's sons, as well as the slow progress of the work were forgotten, but the mausoleum passed into history as the tomb of Captain Marcantonio Martinengo, built in 1526 to coincide with his death: with this attribution and chronological indication it would be remembered by all historical literature, whether Brescian or not.

In 2003 a watercolor, preserved at the Queriniana Library in Brescia and dated 1668, depicting the mausoleum in frontal view was made known. The drawing comes from the second volume of the Trophaea Martia, manuscripted and decorated in Venice between 1686 and 1689 in celebration of the Martinengo da Barco family. This is a very valuable document because it restores the condition of the monument at that date, providing useful data to interpret some of the events related to the commission of the work and its evolution. Although it is quite sketchy, it illustrates how, at that date, the central bronze panel was already missing and not yet filled by the wooden Crucifixion present today, and known only from an engraving of 1822. The crowning is already identical to the present one, without any central fastigium, while the two corner statues are evidently the same ones still present.

The frieze with the Triumphs, on the other hand, is drawn intact, although only the parts that remain are fairly faithfully reproduced, while the currently missing features are much more approximate and almost incomplete, as if the monument lacked them even then and the author of the watercolor freely interpreted them for completeness of design. All other parts of the mausoleum faithfully correspond to the existing one. In particular, the central clipeus on the back covering of the monument already appears to be empty, but it is not known whether it was intended that way or was to accommodate something else, for example, another marble or bronze tondo, or an inscription or coat of arms.

The monastery attached to the church, which over the centuries saw first the fall of the Jesuati, then the entry and demise of the Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga, and finally the management of the reformed Franciscan friars, remained active until 1810 when, following the Napoleonic suppressions, the Franciscan order was abolished and the monastery seized, turning into state property. The church, however, was not secularized, enjoying the presence of two priests appointed by the bishop= Most of the artistic heritage inside, including the Martinengo mausoleum, was thus saved from possible expropriation and dispersion. In 1883, however, the same Martinengo mausoleum was dismantled and transferred to the newly founded Brescia Civic Museums to enrich its exhibition holdings. Thus wrote Antonio Fappani in 1972:

It was desired to decorate the new museum with the Martinengo monument of San Cristo, and, with the consent of the Monsignor Bishop and the Martinengo counts, the graceful mausoleum was removed from its original site and taken to Santa Giulia where indeed it makes a splendid figure. To compensate then San Cristo for the loss of such a treasure of art, the municipality contributed to the restoration of that church.

— Antonio Fappani, Mons. Pietro Capretti, 1972, p. 28