Federico Brandani
Federico Brandani (1522/1525 – 1575) was an Italian sculptor and stuccoist who worked in an urbane Mannerist style as a court artist of Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. Early life Born in Urbino, Brandani was apprenticed there to Giovanni Maria di Casteldurante, a maiolica artist, between 1538 and 1541. There are stucco wall and ceiling decorations by Brandani in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino. His masterpiece is considered to be his presepio, a nativity scene with life-size stucco figures, which is in the Oratory of the Church of San Giuseppe, Urbino. Career For Guidobaldo's wedding with Vittoria Farnese in 1548 Brandani was one of the team that embellished the Palazzo Ducale in Pesaro, where he collaborated with Taddeo Zuccari and Ludovico Carracci. In 1551–53 he worked for Pope Julius III at Villa Giulia, Rome, "if, as seems probable, Brandani is the 'Federigo d'Urbino stuccatore' to whom payments are recorded for work 'alle fontane' of the Villa Giulia between September 1552 and June 1553." From the mid-1550s, Brandani worked on stucco ceilings and other decorations in the Palazzo Tirrani-Castracane in Cagli for Felice Tiranni. He completed that work in about 1571, when he executed Vulcan's Forge over the fireplace in