Ars Adriatica, No. 11, 2021.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.15291/aa.3563
Nerio’s Initial A in the Antiphonary of the Šibenik Franciscans
Nikola Jakšić
; Department of Art History, University of Zadar
Abstract
The lavish initial “A” in the antiphonary of the Šibenik Franciscans has been attributed in scholarly literature to Nerio, a miniaturist from Bologna. It belongs to the first Advent responsory, Aspiciens a longe... The author compares the Šibenik initial with several other initials “A” attributed to Nerio. They all come from long-destroyed choir books and relate to three themes. In addition to the Šibenik initial, which is preserved in its original place, in the antiphonary of the Franciscans, several cuttings with related morphological and stylistic features have been analysed, all attributed to Nerio. They refer to various themes from the choir books Ad te levavi..., Angelus Domini and Resurexi. Special attention has been paid to those depicting an angel on the tomb meeting the myrrh-bearers. Nerio painted this scene several times, and these depictions are very similar to each other. Scholars have observed before that these solutions are close to those by Jacopino da Reggio (or the Master of Bible Latin 18, as he has been cautiously called). The collaboration of the two mentioned miniaturists is attested in some preserved codices in the Vatican and in Toledo. Jacopino is known as the most famous miniature painter of Bologna in the last quarter of the 13th century, and Nerio must have adopted the stylistic features of 13th century Byzantine painting from him. However, in the encounter with Giotto’s Padua cycle, he directed his style towards the innovations in Western painting.
Keywords
Nerio of Bologna; miniatures; choir books; Byzantine influences; 13th and 14th centuries
Hrčak ID:
269704
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2021.
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