Spandrel decoration of the Small Cloister (detail)

Founded by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1396, the Certosa was from the first conceived on a substantial scale, with one large and one smaller cloister and an imposing church. The terracotta decoration of the two cloisters was carried out during the 1460s by a group of artists of whom the most prominent was Cristoforo Mantegazza. There is a group of marble sculptures that can be associated with Cristoforo Mantegazza and his brother Antonio. The Veronese sculptor Antonio Rizzo may have been responsible for modelling certain statuettes in the large cloister, while in the small cloister the young Amadeo worked as a modeller in terracotta.