Ars Adriatica, No. 5, 2015.
Preliminary communication
Giovanni Vendramin and Illuminated Incunables in the Conventual Franciscan Monastery at Šibenik
Bojan Goja
; Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Cullture, Conservation Department in Zadar
Abstract
The article analyses the illuminations of two incunables which are housed in the monastery of St Francis at
Šibenik. The front page of the incunable of John Duns Scotus’ Scriptum in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi (Johannes de Colonia et Johannes Manthen, Venice, 1477) is decorated with high-quality figural and phytomorphic illuminations. In the corners of the decorative frame in the upper margin are the figures of a heron and a monkey. Vertical sections of the frame are filled with flowers, leaves and berries in the colour blue, greenand cyclamen pink and with numerous stylized golden burdock flowers (Arctium). The central part of the frame in the upper and lower margin is filled with dense, symmetrically placed thick leaves in the colour blue, green, purple and cyclamen pink with a stylized golden burdock flower (Arctium) appearing here and there. In the centre of the page is a crest composed of two fields separated by a horizontal line; the upper on is red and the lower one white. Two winged putti are set in the corners and they hold red ribbons. Each wears a necklace made of red corals and classical sandals on their feet. They landscape around them is arid and there is only one tree, its bark dry, standing in it. The rocky ground with jagged edges is covered in small stones. The distinctly painted winged putti, the depiction of the landscape and the dense vegetal decoration filling the frame in the upper and lower margin demonstrate noticeable similarities with the works of Giovanni Vendramin, a prominent representative of Paduan Renaissance miniature. The front page of the aforementioned incunable at Šibenik can be attributed to him; he may well have been helped by his workshop and collaborators. First and foremost, it ought to be mentioned that the decorative frame on one of the opening pages (c. 4v) in an Antiphonary at Ferrara features identical type of leaf decoration as the one that fills the upper and lower margin in the incunable at Šibenik. Here too, the playful putti wear classical sandals and necklaces made of red coral. Furthermore, putti with identical physiohnomies – wearing coral necklaces and classical sandals while holding ribbons in their hands – can be found on fol. 2r in the incunable of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s Orationes (Venice, Christophorus Valdarfer, 1471, Philadelphia, The Rosenbach Museum and Library, Inc 471ci). The landscape in which the putti are depicted is also arid and marked by a single dry tree rising from the ground covered with small stones. Identical putti can be seen on the cover of the incunable of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s, Tusculanae Quaestiones (Venice, N. Jenson, 1472, London, British Library, C.1c.10, fol. 1). The landscape is also depicted in the same way. An excellent comparative example can be found in the winged putti standing on an all’antica structure on the cover of the manuscript of Jacopo Camphora’s, De immortalitate animae (London, Brittish Library, MS Add. 22325) which is decorated with architectural forms. The left and the upper margins of the opening pages of Book I and Book III of Gaius Julius Caesar’s Commentariorvm de bello Gallico (Milan, Antonius Zarotus, 1477) are decorated with frames filled with white vine scrolls on red, green and blue background with white dots. The decoration extends beyond the ornamental frames and reaches into the gold initials G and C. Although the decorative frames were not completely finished, it can be ascertained that they were made with great skill and are of high quality. This frame type was frequently used by Giovanni Vendramin and the examples from Šibenik are very close to some of his works, especially those made for Jacopo Zeno, the Bishop of Padua (Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare).
Keywords
Giovanni Vendramin; Padua; illumination; incunables; monastery of St Francis, Šibenik
Hrčak ID:
149676
URI
Publication date:
18.12.2015.
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