So also Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino about the same time, purchased from a Florentine that most superbly illuminated Bible, in two large folio volumes, dated 1478, which is now in the Vatican library[[191]].
| Attavante the miniaturist. |
Attavante the miniaturist.Among the miniaturists who worked for King Corvinus, the most famous was a Florentine named Attavante di Gabriello, who was born in 1452. Vasari mentions him as a pupil and friend of Fra Angelico[[192]], and describes at great length and with much enthusiasm a sumptuous manuscript of Silius Italicus, belonging to the Dominican Monastery of San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, as being the work of Attavante.
This once magnificent manuscript still exists, but in a much mutilated state, in the Venetian Biblioteca Marciana (Cl. XII. Cod. LXVIII.); all the large miniatures have been cut out, but the borders with winged Cupids, birds and animals among decorative scroll-work are marvels of beauty and minute delicacy of touch. Though quite worthy of Attavante's fame, this manuscript cannot be his work, as it was executed many years too early, in the time of Pope Nicholas V., who reigned from 1447 to 1455.
| MSS. at Venice. |
MSS. at Venice.The same library does, however, possess real examples of Attavante's wonderful illuminations. The borders are specially remarkable for the minute medallion heads which are introduced among the conventional foliage. These minute pictures occur in many of the finest manuscripts of this class; and other miniatori painted them with a microscopic refinement of detail, quite equal to the best illuminations of Attavante. Fig. [49] gives a good typical example of this style of border, with two Cupid-like angels and busts of saints in quatrefoil medallions.
Some of the borders of this class, especially in Venetian and Florentine manuscripts, are decorated with very cleverly painted representations of jewels, such as the emerald and ruby, set at intervals along each margin. These are often wonderful examples of skilful realism, the transparency of the gem, and its bright reflected lights, being rendered with an almost deceptive appearance of reality.
| The miniaturists called dai Libri. |
The miniaturists called dai Libri.In the fifteenth century Verona was one of the chief Italian centres for the production of magnificent manuscripts. Various members of one family, known from their occupation as "dai Libri," were specially famous as miniaturists. Stefano the eldest was born about 1420; he and his younger brother Francesco were both skilled miniaturists, and Francesco's son Girolamo dai Libri (1474 to 1556) was famous not only as a miniatore, but also as a painter of altar-pieces and other sacred pictures on a large scale[[193]].
