Girolamo dai Libri
, Italy, Verona, c. 1490sGirolamo dai Libri
Description
This lovely initial ‘D’ houses a scene of Pentecost. The nearly full-length apostles gather around the Virgin in the center foreground as golden rays descend from a heavenly cloud that represents the Holy Spirit. As the rays reach the heads of the apostles, they turn into small flames or tongues of fire, metaphors of speech, that symbolically fill the apostles with divine inspiration enabling them to carry forth the word of God. The intimate scene conveys a sense of tranquility, the Virgin’s head slightly lowered, and her hands clasped in prayer, while the apostles serenely glance at one another or pray devoutly, conveying a sense of inward spirituality. The modelling is soft, the features delicate, as the group occupies a horror vacui with no depiction of a realistic space, against a rich blue sky, in which the crystals of pulverized lapis lazuli remain visible. The initial begins the first Matins response for Pentecost, a feast celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter, with the words “Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes…” (When the day of Pentecost had come).
The miniature must date early in dai Libri’s career, probably in the 1490s, as proposed by Gaudenz Freuler. The soft, delicate modeling, the compact composition, the relatively simple ornament forming the initial compare closely with the ex-Breslauer Pentecost as well as the Metropolitan Museum Holy Women at the Tomb. It was during this period that Francesco and Girolamo often worked together, and it is not always easy to distinguish one from another in the 1490s. In this regard, compare our Pentecost with a closely related bas-de-page fragment of the Dormition of the Virgin (Sotheby’s London, December 6, 2016, lot 7) published by Mara Hofmann as a work from the 1490s by Francesco or Girolamo dai Libri. As in our cutting, there is a narrative of deep heartfelt pain, conveyed through the varying poses of the apostles, some of which are nearly identical to those portrayed in the present work—the responsibility of Girolamo. The scene is set in an atmospheric landscape with classical elements a la Mantegna—thanks to Francesco.
This group of early works compares favorably with illuminations in an Antiphonal for Saints Nazarius and Celsus in Verona that is localized and dated 1492 by an inscription. Gino Castiglione has attributed the volume to a collaboration between the father and son in the 1490s (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, MSL/1866/4929).
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.
provenance
London Art Market 2017;
Private Collection, Switzerland.
literature
Unpublished;
Related Literature:
Castiglioni, Gino, and Sergio Marinelli, eds. Miniatura veronese del Rinascimento. Verona, 1986, 239–58;
Palladino, Pia, ed. Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. New Haven, 2003, no. 67, 139;
Castiglioni in Marinelli, Sergio, and Paola Marini, eds. Mantegna e le arti a Verona, 1450–1500. Verona, 2006, 20–33;
Castiglioni in Marini, Paola, Gianni Peretti, and Francesca Rossi, eds. Museo di Castelvecchio: Catalogo generale dei dipinti e delle miniature delle collezioni civiche veronesi, vol. 11. Dalla fine del X all’inizio del XVI secolo. Cinisello Balsamo, 2010, 293–94;
Castiglioni, Gino, ed. La Parola illuminata: Per una storia della miniatura a Verona e a Vicenza tra Medioevo e Età Romantica. Verona, 2011, 139–71;
Watson, Rowen. Western Illuminated Manuscripts: Victoria and Albert Museum, 3 vols.. London, 2011, vol. II, no. 120, 640–42;
Szépe in Hindman, Sandra, and Federica Toniolo, eds. The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Painting. London, 2021, 399–407.
learn
Girolamo dai Libri, Italy, Verona, 1475–c. 1555
From a family of illuminators, the “dai Libri” or “of the books,” Girolamo was the son of Francesco dai Libri (c. 1452–1505) and the grandson of Stefano dai Libri (documented 1433–1475). The three generations of dai Libri dominated Veronese illumination for nearly a century; Vasari claimed for Francesco Choir Books made for specific churches and monasteries in Verona, as well as the organ doors and frescos in the choir of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria in Organo, between 1491 and 1502. Girolamo probably began his career there, for he is first documented in a payment record dated 1495 from the monks of Santa Maria Organo. Although no signed work by Girolamo survives, a signed work by Francesco in a manuscript dated 1503 states: “Et magister Franciscus miniator de sancto paulo Veronae miniavit” (And Master Francesco illuminator of St. Paul’s of Verona illuminated this) (Padua, Biblioteca del Seminario, MS 432, f. 112v). Thanks to extensive research by Gino Castiglioni and Hans-Joachim Eberhardt in 1986 (and subsequently), two bodies of works, not always completely distinct, have been grouped around the names of the father Francesco and son Girolamo. They have identified five of the seven choir books mentioned by Vasari with a few manuscripts and many existing fragments. A group of six books datable from 1492 to 1502 form a chronological anchor. The stylistically related cuttings from the Santa Maria in Organo Choir Books, now in the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona, provide firm evidence for dating the early phase of Girolamo’s career, rooted in the statuesque figures of Mantegna but with pale and delicate tonalities. Notable works in the 1490s include fragments such as Holy Women at the Tomb in an initial ‘A’ (New York, Metropolitan Museum, acc. no. 62.122.17) and the ex-Breslauer Pentecost (T. Robert and Katherine States Burke). An illuminated Gradual dates c. 1520 (Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1921.140); and from the 1530s there is a stunning illuminated Gradual (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Ross. 1194) (Fig. 1). In later years, Girolamo’s style becomes increasingly complex, the statuesque figures set in more elaborate landscapes with exuberant border decoration filled with Renaissance grottesche.