BREA, Louis

Italian painter of Ligurian origin. Louis (Ludovico) Brea was among the first to set aside the traditional codes of Gothic art to bring the region of Liguria and the Comté de Nice into the Renaissance. He remains a reference in 15th and 16th century religious painting. His earliest known work is a Pietà, dated 1475 and on display at the Monastery of Cimiez in Nice, where another panel painting by Brea, a Crucifixion, completed in 1512, is also displayed.

Brea was born into a family of coopers in Nice, and later moved to Liguria, where he painted numerous altarpieces that show both Lombard and Flemish influences. One of his pupils was Teramo Piaggio (c. 1490-c. 1572).

In Liguria, Ludovico’s siblings Peter and Antonio Brea also worked as painters, as did Antonio’s son, Francisco Brea.