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- So I went around the churches of Brescia, where he had kept his workshop and from whence he perhaps never for a long time moved, always in search of my author; and I was already despairing, proving fruitless even some archival investigation, of tracing his footsteps, when it happened to me to find myself at the Christian Museum, in the deconsecrated church of Santa Giulia. [...] I stopped my attention on that distinguished masterpiece of Brescian sculpture that is the mausoleum of General Marc'Antonio Martinengo. I observed [...] the strange flavor of that style in which Gothic substrata, mixed with Baroque precursors, emerge, which is proper to the decorative art of Brescia in the sixteenth century. And I was thinking about the architectural relations of the monument with the portal of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, catching in it some leading threads that well clarify its northern origins, when, as I approached to examine the bronze medallions embedded in the plinths, I had the sensation that I was facing creations of the master I was researching. The resemblance, indeed, the partial identity, of these figures with those seated in the niches of the Venetian candelabra, which had well remained in my eyes, gave me the confidence that I had come, at last, to a safe harbor. [...] Probably the bronze square panels of the sarcophagus, as well as the triumphal frieze in which the stylistic affinity to Condino's figures was evident, must also have belonged to him. I was left with some uncertainty, however, about the possible assignment of the marble part to Maffeo. (en)
- 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. (en)
- Olivieri's authorship of the Martinengo Mausoleum seems to me, therefore, at least hypothetical, not justified by what we really know about his stylistic evolution. It therefore seems to me appropriate, as a line of hypothesis, to speak of a still anonymous Master of the Martinengo Mausoleum. (en)
- But if Olivieri's architectural-decorative sense is of a pure Lombard orientation, the same cannot be said of the figural parts. The broad, soft, animated treatment of his figures, often modeled with synthesis and abbreviations, presupposes the abandonment of the naturalistic current headed by Amadeo and Briosco. with its dry, sharp, sour character, which was exaggerated by certain followers such as the Mantegazza. (en)
- Document of extreme importance for the history of Brescian sculpture of the first half of the 16th century. In fact, it invalidates the attribution to Maffeo Olivieri of the Martinengo Monument, now in the Christian Museum, already proposed by Fenaroli, critically taken up by Morassi, accepted by Peroni and Panazza. Thus also its most current chronology is denied, lowering the date of design to 1503, and this goes back to the advantage of the homogeneity of Brescian sculpture in that it stands next to the tomb of S. Apollonio in the Duomo Nuovo and that of S. Tiziano in S. Cosma [...]. The problem is that of attribution, since Bernardino Dalle Croci is always referred to in all monuments as aurifex and never as sculptor, which if it can be accepted for parts of metal frieze cannot justify the decorative part in marble. The attribution of this monument is a fundamental problem, for if it is to be taken away from Olivieri it falls apart the truly logical construction that the most recent criticism had built on Olivieri. (en)
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