Belbello da pavia biography

The Rise and Fall of a Court Artist in Renaissance Italy

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9/22/2015 11:09 AM In 1462, the same year in which Belbello unsuccessfully asked permission to finish the missal for Marquise Barbara of Brandenburg, the artist made a similarly fruitless attempt to gain employment from Duchess of Milan, Bianca Maria

Visconti. Perhaps the duchess, too, considered his style outdated. Fortunately, later in the decade Belbello was able to obtain work in Venice, where he illuminated choir books for the Benedictine monks of San Giorgio Maggiore.

In the above illumination, we see that Belbello was much less concerned with rendering naturalistic bodies in convincing three-dimensional space than he was with decorative patterns and expressive faces, as for instance in the subtly delineated folds in the young Christ's robes and his engaging visage, which suggests conversation with the viewer. In the 1460s, such a decorative style was simply no longer in vogue.

Initial M: The Annunciation (detail) in the Antiphonal P of San Giorgio Maggiore, Belbello da Pavia, about 1467-70. Fondazione Gi


Biography

Italian illuminator. He was one of the principal and most distinctive manuscript illuminators active in Lombardy in the mid-15th century. This distinguished miniaturist remained unknown for a long while and scholars only became aware of him in 1915. Yet he was famed in his time throughout northern Italy. He received his training in Lombardy where he was guided by the masters Giovannino de' Grassi and Michelino da Besozzo, and just as much by the miniatures of Franco-Flemish manuscripts which were kept at Castello di Pavia. In 1450 he was convicted of sodomy in Mantua, in his absence.

He was engaged by the most important patrons imaginable, because of his outstanding accomplishments - the Este family, the Gonzagas, the Visconti and Cardinal Bessarion. Filippo Maria Visconti, 3rd Duke of Milan, commissioned him to complete a Book of Hours (Ms. Landau Finaly 22, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence) left unfinished by Giovannino de Grassi and Salomone de Grassi. Three miniatures in an Acta sanctorum (Mss. AE. XIV. 19-20, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Milan), the

Illuminated Manuscript Obsession

Curator's Corner

book illustrationbookartsborder decorationcalligraphyIranian artIranian paintinglinemanuscript illuminationminiaturesone-point perspectiveRenaissance artSafavid dynastyspacevertical perspective

By Karl Cole, posted on Mar 4, 2013

I’ve posted about manuscripts previously, because I LOVE THEM! That love has since extended to myriad cultures around the globe that produce such artworks. Therefore, in this post I won’t blah blah too much about the evolution of the genre. What I find fascinating, after coming across this example, is the wide variety of approaches in different cultures!


Belbello da Pavia (Luchino di Giovanni Belbello, active by 1430, died after 1473, Italy), Annunciation in an initial M(issus est), excised section of an antiphonary, 1440–1450. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on parchment, 7 3/4" x 6 1/2" (19.7 x 16.5 cm) (excised piece of page). © Cleveland Museum of Art. (CL-578)

 

Belbello da Pavia was a very busy manuscript illuminator in the mid-140

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