Illuminated Manuscript—Initial ‘D’ from a choir book illuminated by Antonio Maria da Villafora, (North-Eastern Italy, Padua), last quarter 15th century

PROVENANCE:

1. Made in the last quarter of the 15th century, part of a large choir book, illustrating the line from Psalm 53 in which the fool is one who denies God: ‘The fool says in his heart “There is no God.”‘ .

2. Captain John Henry Ball (d.1938): his red stamp on the reverse. Acquired probably in the 1920s and placed on deposit with his substantial collection of antiquities, arms and armour, and medieval items, at the Hertfordshire Museum, St Albans. By descent to:

3. His son, John Brayfield Ball (d.1940); bought by Capt. Ball’s executor, Sydney Edward Lucas (d.1970), by whom withdrawn from the Museum and sold at:

4. Christie's, London, May 16, 1961, probably part of lot 146 (the figure identified as Lazarus) bought by Rogers.

5. Collection of Karl and Elizabeth Katz, their sale at Christie’s: Script and Illumination: Featuring the Karl and Elizabeth Katz Collection on12th Dec 2017, lot 27.

One of the Middle Ages’ most popular and ever present figures: the Fool, in an elegant pink initial ‘D’

COMMENTARY:

Against a blue ground decorated with swirling white tracings stands the figure of a happy fool, safely encased by the soft pink body of a letter ‘D’ with white leaf-like embellishments. The male figure is dressed in a grey tunic that is coming apart at the seams, carrying a club and wearing a cap of very faintly visible feathers. His gaze is turned upwards, to heavens, unaware of where his next step is going to take him — off a cliff or into the next adventure?

The fool was a central figure in the imagination and visual landscape of the Middle Ages, from murals to paintings, to card games, human foolishness embodied in the figure of the fool was ever present. In liturgical manuscripts, the fool was traditionally used to illustrate the introduction of Psalm 53, opening with Dixit insipiens in corde suo (‘The fool said in his heart’) where he took centre stage.

Our content looking figure can be attributed to the artist Antonio Maria da Villafora, who was active in Padua for an extensive period from 1469 until his death in 1511 (Armstrong 2018, p.76). Payment records survive for a Missal illuminated in his hand and a copy of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis by Vicent Beauvais and Antonio Maria is further documented in 1482 at the University of Padua, where he worked as an illuminator attached to the faculty of law (cf. Bagatini 2001).

Besides working for individual patrons, such as Pietro Barozzi, Bishop of Padua (1489–1505), whose manuscripts and incunabula are now in the Biblioteca Capitolare in Padua, he also worked on monastic commissions of impressive liturgical books. In his later years he almost exclusively worked for the Benedictine congregation of San Giustina in Pada (Canova 1978, Bagatin 2001, Bollati 1994, p.69–73) for whom he illuminated a number of psalters — now held at Padua, Biblioteca Civica, ms.811, 812.

In Gnaccolini’s Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, Antonio Maria is praised as the leading figure of the Paduan Renaissance for the volume, continuity, and high quality of his output. (Gnaccolini 2004, pp.36-9). His recognisable style is marked by the strong features of his human figures, often with slightly upturned noses as exemplified by the figure of the fool in our initial. The portrait also demonstrates his careful modelling of faces which is achieved through multiple layers of brushstrokes — a technique that Villafora perfected towards the end of his career. The depiction of the fool is a clear foreshadowing of this artistic trajectory and pinnacle of his work.

LITERATURE:

Alexander, J. J. G. The Decorated Letter. New York: George Braziller, 1978, nos.17–18.

Alexander, J. J. G., and A. C. de la Mare. The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J. R. Abbey. London: Faber and Faber, 1969, 109.

Bagatin, Pier Luigi. Antonio Maria da Villafora: tra università, curia e monasteri, un miniatore ritrovato. Antilia. Treviso: Antilia, 2001.

Bradley, John W. A Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers, and Copyists. 3 vols. London, 1887–1889.

D’Ancona, Paolo, and Hans Aeschlimann. Miniature Painting. Milan, 1949.

De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 3 vols. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1935–1940, vol. 2, 1337.

Fumian, Silvia. Gli incunaboli miniati e xilografati della Biblioteca Capitolare di Padova. Fonti e ricerche di storia ecclesiastica padovana 38. Padua: Istituto per la storia ecclesiastica padovana, 2014, 49–63, 157–227.

Gnaccolini, Laura Paola. Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani. Milan: Editrice Bibliografica, 2004.

—. “Antonio Maria da Villafora.” In Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, 36–40.

Kidd, Peter. “Medieval Manuscripts from the Collection of Captain Jack Ball.” In Beyond Words: New Research on Manuscripts in Boston Collections, edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Lisa Fagin Davis, Anne E. McGee Morgan, Nancy Netzer, and William P. Stoneman. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016.

Mariani Canova, Giordana. Miniatura veneta del Rinascimento. Venice: Neri Pozza, 1969, 80–96, 96, 130–136, 134–135, 163, cat. 117.

New York, The Art of the Renaissance Book (exh. cat.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005–2006, no. 30, 154–157.

Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare: Manuscripts of the Renaissance (exh. cat.). Padua, 1999, nos. 139–142, 153–165, 167.

Walther, Ingo F. Codices illustres: The World’s Most Famous Illuminated Manuscripts. Cologne: Taschen, 2001, 386–389.

The Art of the Renaissance Book. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005.