"The Resurrected Christ"

The artist's real name was Bartolomeo Suardi. The name Bramantino suggests he was associated with the architect Bramante, but the nature of this relationship is not known. Bramantino's works have a distinctly cold, architectural quality.

Bramantino had studied the work of Lombard artists and was influenced in his early career by Donato Bramante. Among the aspects of the latter’s work that most influenced him were the use of light, the linear and graphic aspects of the construction of volumes and the use of perspective.

A number of paintings attributed to him, including 'The Adoration of the Kings' in the The National Gallery in London, have prominent architectural elements and carefully constructed perspective schemes. These could be associated with an architectural training.

Bramantino was active in Milan and recorded in Rome in 1508. In 1525 he was appointed painter and architect to Francesco Sforza II, ruler of Milan.

Leonardo da Vinci overwhelmingly influenced many local painters in Milan, but it appears that Bramantino was not one of them. Stylistically his works continue the tradition of the pre-Leonardesque Milanese painting of Butinone and Foppa. Bramantino's work also shows influences from further afield, notably that of Piero della Francesca and of Mantegna.