Original scientific paper
The Significance of Farnese Hours in the European Portrayals of Bird of Paradise during the 16th Century
Jasenka Ferber Bogdan
orcid.org/0000-0002-9889-6479
; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Arhiv za likovne umjetnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Jasmina Mužinić
; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Zavod za ornitologiju Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Farnese Hours is a prayer book which was illustrated in Rome by the well – known Croatian miniaturist Julije Klović, during the time period between 1537(39) and 1546, as ordered by his benefactor, cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and it is kept today in Pierpont Morgan Library, in New York. Even though the aristic value of this Renaissance artwork has been recognized already during the time of it’s creation, it was only after the reprinted edition in 2001, which was published by Croatian Academy of Science and Arts Zagreb, has it become more available to the wider cultural and scientific public. Farnese Hours up to this day remains a well – researched topic, from the aspect of stylistic and iconographic expression. All of the miniatures are described in detail, and among them, a bird of paradise from the page 6v is only mentioned in passing. However, most of these products of research have remained in the field of particular professions, and only through interdisciplinary approach, which has included visual, cultural – historic and ornithological aspects, was possible to reinterpret this illustration, and to precisely determine the ornithological type – Great Bird of Paradise Paradisaea apoda. The results of these research have contributed to the new findings regarding the history of the first taxidermic prototypes of birds of paradise in Europe, to study of the link between the motif of the bird of paradise with the phoenix bird and to understanding the interpresonal relations of historical figures of Klović’s circle of artists, rulers and powerful church figures.
And so, these findings in form of picture, text and interviews with the authors have already been displayed on the internet web – site of the BBC’s “Earth News”, hosted by Mat Walter, and the motif of Klović’s bird of paradise has gained it’s place in several publications of the distinguished researchers of birds of paradise, such as the books of authors Clifford and Dawn Frith from 2010, and two books from 2012 – authored by Tim Laman and Edwin Scholes, and sir David Attenborough and Errol Fuller. Also, the results of these research attempts are shown in the catalogue of the exhibition “Julije Klović, the greatest miniaturist of the Renaissance”, that was organized in Zagreb, in the late 2012.
Keywords
Farnese Hours; Giulio Clovio; bird of paradise; phoenix; multidisciplinary research
Hrčak ID:
150016
URI
Publication date:
10.11.2015.
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