Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis
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Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis (c. 1455 - c. 1508) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Milan, who is known for having collaborated with Leonardo da Vinci, and with his own brother Evangelis, in the altarpiece of the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Conception. Born in Preda, he gained a reputation as a portratist, including miniatures, for the court of Ludovico Sforza.
Before emperor Maximilian I agreed to marry Ludovico Sforza's daughter, he requested a portrait (painted by Predis) to get an idea of her appearance. After her wedding, Predis followed her to Innsbruck in 1493. After a year he returned to Milan, where he designed coins for the mint, designed and supervised tapestry works, and prepared stage scenery. In 1502 he produced his only surviving signed and dated work, a portrait of the Emperor Maximilian. Much of Predis's artistic output remains in dispute. The side panels for the Virgin of the Rocks, now in the National Gallery, London were stated by the brothers to have been painted by them during the legal dispute over the altarpiece, and this is accepted by art historians.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ National Gallery Catalogues: Catalogue of the Earlier Italian Schools, Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues, London 1961, reprinted 1986, ISBN 0901791296
- Freedberg, Sydney J. (1993). in Pelican History of Art: Painting in Italy, 1500-1600. Penguin Books, p. 382. ISBN 0-14-056035-1
