Moving from the reexamination of a richly illustrated exemplar of Boccaccio’s Filostrato (New York, PML, M. 371), this study uncovers a noteworthy production of illuminated manuscripts flourished between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples during the first quarter of the Quattrocento. In the first part, the essay analyzes the context of the making of the Filostrato, illustrated with 58 washed pen-drawings generally considered to be by a Neapolitan hand. A cross-examination of the initial subscription (today partly illegible) and of some known documents related to the Palazzo Apostolico in Rome reveals the provenance and the geographical location of the scribe, Pace di Giuliano da Olevano Romano, who signed and dated the manuscript in 1414. Furthermore, the owner is tentatively identified with Vito de Grignano, a confidant of Queen Giovanna II of Anjou-Durazzo. A close analysis allows us to identify two different groups of artists at work on this manuscript – one for the illustrations and one for the illuminated borders, the initials, and the scene on f. 35v. The drawings show a late fourteenth-century Umbrian culture in line with the work ascribed to the Master of the Dormitio of Terni, whose workshop realized the fresco cycle inspired by Boccaccio’s Teseida in the Rocca of Spoleto. The hand of the illuminator, instead, is recognized in a sumptuously decorated Italian vernacular translation of Seneca’s Tragediae (Madrid, BNE, Res 230), revealing the influence of the impetuous language of the Breviary written in 1404 for Enrico Tomacelli, abbot of Monte Cassino (Oxford, Keble College, 30), as well as similarities with some illuminated manuscripts from the Abruzzo area. In the second part, the article retraces the impact of the Filostrato and Seneca Master on the later developments of miniature painting in the Kingdom of Naples, so far characterized by a substantial lack of examples. The ascendancy of the Master’s language can be clearly detected behind the full-page coat of arms painted in the so-called Messale del dragone (Benevento, BC, 48), dated 1421, and in some of the oldest illuminated pages of the famous Codice di S. Marta (Napoli, Archivio di Stato, 99. C. I). The patron of the Missal is identified as Antonio de Castellono di Montefusco, likely the same person mentioned as king Ladislao of Anjou-Durazzo’s ambassador to Perugia in 1410. On the basis of stylistic comparisons, the illuminated page with Luigi II’s coat of arms – in fact Luigi III, who entered the Neapolitan confraternity of S. Marta in 1424 – is ascribed to the Master of the Benevento Missal. The prestigious patronage network and the stylistic relationships with the Abruzzo region suggest a possible hint to the work of the still elusive Nardo di maestro Andrea da Sulmona, to whom Ladislao conferred the title of familiaris on 10 May 1407.
Il Filostrato Morgan 371 e la miniatura tra Regno di Napoli e Stato della Chiesa agli inizi del Quattrocento
D'URSO, Teresa
2015
Abstract
Moving from the reexamination of a richly illustrated exemplar of Boccaccio’s Filostrato (New York, PML, M. 371), this study uncovers a noteworthy production of illuminated manuscripts flourished between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples during the first quarter of the Quattrocento. In the first part, the essay analyzes the context of the making of the Filostrato, illustrated with 58 washed pen-drawings generally considered to be by a Neapolitan hand. A cross-examination of the initial subscription (today partly illegible) and of some known documents related to the Palazzo Apostolico in Rome reveals the provenance and the geographical location of the scribe, Pace di Giuliano da Olevano Romano, who signed and dated the manuscript in 1414. Furthermore, the owner is tentatively identified with Vito de Grignano, a confidant of Queen Giovanna II of Anjou-Durazzo. A close analysis allows us to identify two different groups of artists at work on this manuscript – one for the illustrations and one for the illuminated borders, the initials, and the scene on f. 35v. The drawings show a late fourteenth-century Umbrian culture in line with the work ascribed to the Master of the Dormitio of Terni, whose workshop realized the fresco cycle inspired by Boccaccio’s Teseida in the Rocca of Spoleto. The hand of the illuminator, instead, is recognized in a sumptuously decorated Italian vernacular translation of Seneca’s Tragediae (Madrid, BNE, Res 230), revealing the influence of the impetuous language of the Breviary written in 1404 for Enrico Tomacelli, abbot of Monte Cassino (Oxford, Keble College, 30), as well as similarities with some illuminated manuscripts from the Abruzzo area. In the second part, the article retraces the impact of the Filostrato and Seneca Master on the later developments of miniature painting in the Kingdom of Naples, so far characterized by a substantial lack of examples. The ascendancy of the Master’s language can be clearly detected behind the full-page coat of arms painted in the so-called Messale del dragone (Benevento, BC, 48), dated 1421, and in some of the oldest illuminated pages of the famous Codice di S. Marta (Napoli, Archivio di Stato, 99. C. I). The patron of the Missal is identified as Antonio de Castellono di Montefusco, likely the same person mentioned as king Ladislao of Anjou-Durazzo’s ambassador to Perugia in 1410. On the basis of stylistic comparisons, the illuminated page with Luigi II’s coat of arms – in fact Luigi III, who entered the Neapolitan confraternity of S. Marta in 1424 – is ascribed to the Master of the Benevento Missal. The prestigious patronage network and the stylistic relationships with the Abruzzo region suggest a possible hint to the work of the still elusive Nardo di maestro Andrea da Sulmona, to whom Ladislao conferred the title of familiaris on 10 May 1407.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
