ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI

This monumental Breviary of 597 folios is among the finest of the numerous books made for the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus (1443-1490) in the late 15th century. The Renaissance royal court at Buda (today Budapest) was the earliest and most important outside Italy. The codices so highly prized by Matthias were produced partly in his own workshop in Buda and also in Florence.

Rather than as a collector’s item for the Bibliotheca Corviniana, the Breviary seems to have been conceived for liturgical use in the royal castle chapel. It was illuminated by Attavante degli Attavanti. Apparently the illuminator was not able to finish the book during Matthias’s lifetime, this might be the reason why it remained in Italy and became the property of a member of the Trivulzio family.

The manuscript contains 8 particularly opulently painted folios, and rich floral decoration on nearly all pages. The frontispiece miniature (on folio 7v) in the first major section of the book, the Temporal, shows the title in gold Capitalis script on a blue ground. The black marbled columns and pilasters of the aedicula with the richly decorated capitals and paneled barrel vault are derived from the formal vocabulary of early Renaissance art.

The illustration on folio 8r shows St Paul delivering a sermon. Among his listeners we find the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus wearing a crown, to his right the young John Corvinus and Queen Beatrice kneeling in the foreground.

This manuscript contains the encyclopedic work, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (“On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury”) by Martianus Capella (active in 5th century), a native of North Africa and an advocate at Carthage whose prose and poetry introduction to the liberal arts was of immense cultural influence down to the late Middle Ages. It deals in depth with the seven liberal arts within the framework of the romantic story of the marriage of Philology and Mercury but has a profoundly didactic content.

The names of both the scribe and the illuminator of this fine Florentine copy of Martianus Capella are found in the manuscript. The scribe was Alessandro da Verrazzano who produced many manuscripts for illustrious patrons between 1477 and 1506. The illumination is by Attavante, an important figure in Florentine illumination of the late fifteenth century.

The present manuscript was made for the library of King Matthias of Hungary. It contains 24 miniatures, representing the Meetings of the Gods and the Arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium, as well as borders with floral motifs and decorated initials. The Arts are all depicted as enthroned female figures in the act of demonstrating or teaching the science they personify.

Folio 149v represents Music.

The full-page miniature is a page (folio 205v) of a Missal (Missale Romanum) signed by Attavante who was one of the outstanding miniaturist of the Florentine Renaissance. He came from an aristocratic family and studied with Francesco di Antonio del Chierico, the most significant Florentine miniaturist of the time. In the 1480s he already worked independently, his first dated and signed work is a Missal in Lyon. Later he worked in the court of the humanist Hungarian King Matthias and he decorated here more than 30 manuscripts among them the Missal presently in Brussels.

The miniature depicts the scene of Calvary which is framed by several small pictures, which are at left from the top down: Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Circumcision, Christ among the Doctors; at right from the bottom up: Christ in the Getshemane Garden, Kiss of Judas, Christ before the Judges, Flagellation, Carrying the Cross. The pictures reflect the influence of contemporary altarpieces.

The codex was made for Matthias, King of Hungary. In 1526 it was brought to the Netherlands by the flighting Queen Mary, widow of the Hungarian King Louis II who died in the Battle of Moh�cs against the Turks. Mary became the governess of the Netherlands and the following governors took their oaths on this Missal.

The picture shows the frontispiece of the Codex Heroica by Philostratus (c. 171-c. 248), a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. The codex was illuminated by the Florentine painter Attavante degli Attavanti.

The miniature represents Joannes Corvinus, Son of King Matthias Corvinus, Entering Vienna. It is from the frontispiece of Codex Heroica by Philostratus illuminated by the Florentine painter Attavante degli Attavanti.

The miniature represents the Portrait of an Old Humanist. It is from the Codex Heroica by Phoilostratus illuminated by the Florentine painter Attavante degli Attavanti.