Pavia, (Milanese-ruled) Commune of

A branch of the Visconti family possesses the signoria of the city of Pavia, whose current signore, Galeazzo II Visconti, dies at fifty-eight on August 4, 1378.

His thirty-six-year-old son, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, succeeds to rule over Pavia.

Gian Galeazzo Visconti’s first marriage was to Isabelle of Valois, who brought him the title of comte de Vertus in Champagne, rendered in Italian as Conte di Virtù, the title by which he was known in his early career.

A devoted father to his daughter Valentina (wife of Louis, Duke of Orleans and mother of the famous poet, Charles of Orleans), Gian Galeazzo had reacted to gossip about Valentina at the French Court by threatening to declare war on France.

The wife of King Charles VI of France iss Isabeau of Bavaria, the granddaughter of Bernabò Visconti, and, thus, a bitter rival of Valentina and her father Gian Galeazzo Visconti.

After Galeazzo's wife Isabelle died in childbirth in 1373, he married secondly, on October 2, 1380, his first cousin Caterina Visconti, daughter of Bernabò; with her he will have two sons, Gian Maria and Filippo Maria.

Although most famous as Signore of Milan, Gian Galeazzo is the son of Galeazzo II Visconti, who possessed the signoria of the city of Pavia.

In 1385, Gian Galeazzo gains control of Milan by overthrowing his uncle Bernabò through treacherous means.

He imprisons his uncle, who soon dies, supposedly poisoned on his orders.

Gothic architecture has transcended its creative heartland in northern France to become international in scope.

Gian Galeazzo Visconti, ruler of Milan, begins construction of the Certosa di Pavia or Charterhouse of Pavia on a site a few miles north of Pavia, inaugurating the works and laying the foundation stone on August 27, 1396, as recorded by a bas-relief on the facade.

The location, on the border of a large hunting park, has been strategically chosen midway between Milan and Pavia, the second city of the Duchy, where the Duke holds his court.

The church, the last edifice of the complex to be built, is to be the family mausoleum of the Visconti.

It is designed as a grand structure with a nave and two aisles, a type unusual for the Carthusian Order.

The Certosa is today renowned for the exuberance of its architecture, in both the Gothic and Renaissance styles, and for its collection of artworks which are particularly representative of the region.

The church of the Certosa di Pavia, designed by Giovanni and Guiniforte Solari as a grand structure with a nave and two aisles, a type unusual for the Carthusian Order, is the last edifice of the complex to be built; it is to serve as the family mausoleum of the Visconti.

The nave, in the Gothic style, is completed in 1465.

However, since the foundation, the Renaissance has spread in Italy, and the rest of the edifice is built according to the new style, redesigned by Guiniforte Solari and including some new cloisters.

Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, born in Pavia, had in 1470 been commissioned by Bartolomeo Colleoni to complete his funerary chapel, the Cappella Colleoni in Bergamo, which had been begun by Guiniforte and Francesco Solari.

Amadeo had added polychrome decoration and many sculptures in the ancient style including medallions, small columns, busts, reliefs of "Histories from the Old Testament" and "Histories of Hercules".

Amadeo also designed the funerary monument to Medea Colleoni, which was intended for the church of Santa Maria della Basella in Urgnano.

The condottiero's tomb was realized in collaboration with other artists, with Amadeo providing the reliefs of the lower sarcophagus and of the smaller upper sarcophagus, as well seven statues of the Virtues.

Amadeo was also commissioned by Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza to work for some years in the Certosa di Pavia.

During 1473-1476, Amadeo had realized half of the bas-reliefs in the right side of the façade.

In 1480 he finishes the arch of the Persian Martyrs in the Olivetani Monastery of Cremona (four marble reliefs remain today, dated 1484).

Also attributed to him are two statues of Justice and Temperance in Cremona, and reliefs in the National Antiquity Museum of Parma.

Amadeo is commissioned in 1488 by Cardinal Ascanio Sforza as the director of works of the new Pavia Cathedral, again with Bramante having a minor role, making a model for the cathedral.