Circle of the Master B.F.
, c. 1510Circle of the Master B.F.
Description
Decorating an initial 'S' that has been cut to shape, a pope stands, crosier in his left hand, raising his right hand in blessing. He wears the papal tiara and a cope in red, the color suited to the season of Pentecost. Perhaps he prefaced the Common of One or Several Sovereign Pontiffs, which opens in the Gradual with the Introit Si diligis me Simon Petre.
The cutting is similar to works by the painter and illuminator known as the Master B.F., whose name derives from the monogram with which he signed some of his works (for example, The Adoration of the Magi, New York, The Morgan Library, M. 725. Recognizable features of his High Renaissance style, which owes a debt both to the great Leonardo da Vinci and to the Lombard illuminator Cristoforo de Predis, include the palette of rose and green and the forms of the foliate extensions, the modeling of the hands and garments, and to a lesser extent the treatment of the face (which is very slightly rubbed, having been pressed against glass in an old frame). The present illumination is not traced in Carminati's catalogue, but its similarity to others, especially those in the intact "second" codex at Casorate Primo completed in 1510 (see esp. ff. 133v, 150) and with similar ornamentation, confirms the attribution.
The extant works attributed to the Master B.F. include a set of about twenty Choir Books of Villanova Sillaro near Milan, the Bible in S. Ambrogio in Milan (inv. M. 43-44), the Donation of Ludovico Moro to the Church of S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 434). More than 23 cuttings by him were in the collection of Robert Holford, many of which are now housed in major museums. The present cutting is close to another miniature related to the Casorate codex and cut to shape, Saint Laurence in Chantilly (Musee Conde, n. inv. Divers, VI, 402, VII; see Carminati p. 120, p. 155, ill.).
Literature
Unpublished. For comparisons see Marco Carminati, Codici miniati del Maestro B.F. a Casorate Primo, Pavia, 1995, with earlier bibliography.
