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Resurrection of Christ
Historiated initial R from a gradual, illuminated by Giovan Pietro Birago.
Italy, Brescia or Milan, c. 1470
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Miniature on parchment, 173 x 218 mm.
Provenance:
European private collection.
Text:
The initial R opens the introit for the Mass of Easter Sunday: “Resurrexi et…”
Illumination:
The lavishly decorated letter R, composed of a Corinthian column and two dolphins rubbing each other’s noses, forms the frame for the vigorously narrated mystery of Easter. Having risen from his tomb inside a rocky formation to the left Christ is hovering halfway between earth and heaven in a golden glory illuminating the nocturnal landscape with the city of Jerusalem in the distant background. In great astonishment and visibly not yet fully awake, two soldiers witness the wonder which is happening before them in the middle of the night, while a third soldier is still fast asleep.
This hitherto unknown fragment is a typical product of North-Italian manuscript illumination of the Renaissance. Eclectic in its tendency, it represents a high artistic level. Here the sophisticated traditions formed at the court of the Este in Ferrara merge with the art of the illuminators active at various Lombard courts. If one seeks to define the style of the miniature, one may use the image of a complex and composite plant where Venetian and Ferrarese shoots grow from a Lombard trunk.
While the conception of the initial represents a simplified reflex of the models established in the circle of Liberale da Verona and Girolamo dai Libri, the figures and their physiognomies reveal an affinity with manuscript illumination in Ferrara. The landscape, too, consists of composite elements. Thus the rocks reflect the influence of Mantegna, whereas the circular trees again point to Lombard traditions. Arguments in favour of a Lombard artist are the vivid palette as well as the simplified interpretation of Veronese impulses concerning the classical vocabulary of the initial. Similar characteristics may be witnessed in Milan in the works of the so-called Master B.F. only a couple of years later. The figures with their somewhat standardized features, and notably their profiles with small pointed noses, reveal an affinity with the style of Giovanni da Desia from Monza, who signed and dated (1480 IO(H)ANES DE DEXIO FECIT) a miniature, formerly in an private collection in Austria, depicting the Summoning of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (cf. Friedrich Georg Zeileis, Più ridon le carte. Buchmalerei aus Mittelalter und Renaissance, Gallspach 2004, p. 338-339).
The observations and reflections exposed above lead us to believe that a Lombard illuminator painted the initial at hand in the final years of the 15th century. Prof. Jonathan J.G. Alexander claims that the miniature must have been executed by Giovan Pietro Birago, which would support and confirm our stylistic evaluation, because the famous Milanese book illuminator could have been, as Alexander assumes, to Venice and Rome before he came to Brescia and Milan (cf. Alexander 2004, p. 229). Today Giovan Pietro Birago is most famous for having illuminated the major part of the Sforza Hours (London, British Library, ms Add 34294) for the Duchess Bona of Savoy in the 1490s. He was probably born between 1440 and 1450 and died in Milan after 1513. He was a prolific artist whose activity is known from 1471 when he illuminated the choirbooks for the cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore de Dom in Brescia, that is, when he started working as an independent painter. He is also known to have illuminated some printed books in the nineties of the 15th century, such as Joannes Simoneta’s Commentarii rerum gestarum Francisi Sfortiae, known as the ‘Sforziada’ printed by Antonio Zarrotto in Milan in 1490 (a.o.) (cf. e.g. Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa, BN. Inc. 1378, which is a signed copy). In the eighties of the 15th century he worked for leading Venetian families before entering the services of the Sforza in Milan around 1490. As the style of our miniature differs remarkably from the illuminations Birago made for the Sforza Hours in the late 1480s to 1490s, Alexander assumes that the miniature on our cutting must have been made in his earlier years, probably about 1470, thus about the same time when he executed those cuttings that Jonathan Alexander was able to attribute to the Brescia choirbooks (cf. Alexander 2004, p. 232f.).
We would like to thank Prof. Jonathan J.G. Alexander for his comment.
Prof. Dr Gaudenz Freuler
Literature:
The miniature is hitherto unpublished.
Bonfadini, Paola, I libri corali del Duomo Vecchio del Brescia, Brescia 1998.
Gnaccolini, Paola, 'Un aggiunta al catalogo di Giovan Pietro Birago', in: Arte lombarda del secondo Millennio. Saggi in onore di G.A. Dell'Acqua, Milan 2000, pp. 93-101.
Alexander, Jonathan J. G., 'Giovan Pietro da Birago, illuminator of Milan. Some initials cut from choir books', in Excavating the medieval image: manuscripts, artists, audiences, essays in honour of Sandra Hindman, ed. by David S. Areford and Nina A. Rowe, Aldershot, 2004, pp. 225-246.
Gnaccolini, Paola in: Dizionario Biografico dei Miniatori Italiani. Secoli IX-XVI. Ed. by Milvia Bollati, Milan 2004, pp. 104-110. |
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