GHERARDO DI GIOVANNI DEL FORA

Coinciding with the Renaissance fascination with the circle, the tondo - or round image - became popular in Florence during the second half of the fifteenth century. Although most tondi were devotional objects, they generally adorned residences rather than churches. Installed above eye level, the tondo was like a window to a heavenly realm where viewers could observe the exemplary actions of beautifully painted holy figures. The oil medium, popularised in Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century, gave the images a new naturalism, with figures that seemed more lifelike than the upright figures in the traditional altarpiece format.

Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary (1443-1490) had amassed a collection of books unparalleled in the late Middle Ages north of the Alps. This prestigious library eventually housed between 2.000 and 2.500 codices, among them many written in Greek. They were all lavishly decorated with gilded bindings and adorned with the king’s coat of arms. The three-volume Latin Bible (the Florentine Bible) now in Florence had initially been planned for Matthias and most certainly was to be integrated into the stocks of his Hungarian library. Only a small number of illustrations were made by the Florentine illuminator Attavante and his workshop, the majority of the paintings are by the hands of the brothers Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni.

Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni were brothers and together with Attavante di Attavanti and Francesco Antonio del Chierico they were the most significant miniaturists of the period in Florence. The brothers worked together, Gherardo making the figurative illuminations while Monte the decoration. Gherardo was a humanist, he is mentioned as the friend of Leonardo da Vinci. He was the pupil of Domenico Ghirlandaio and was influenced by Netherlandish art.

The title page of volume III of the Florentine Bible (folio 1v) constitutes one of the major achievements of the brothers Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni. It shows King David of the Old Testament kneeling in the foreground of the main picture, which is inserted between ornamental pilasters. In the right background, the Israelites pursue the fleeing Philistines who are depicted as Turks wearing turbans. The central figure of the three persons in the middle ground, who are watching the battle, is King Matthias, while the person on the right wearing a crown can be identified as the French king Charles VIII.

The principal character of the picture is the kneeling King David as begging God. The background is very rich in representation of scenes with David. The three historical figures behind the kneeling David can be recognized as Queen Beatrix (or Anne de Beaujeu), King Matthias of Hungary and King Charles VIII of France. The Renaissance town in the background symbolizes Jerusalem. At the bottom of the page two scenes from the life of David are represented.

The picture shows a page from the Calendar of March.

This manuscript is one of the most complete Song Books of the later fifteenth century. The authors mainly represented are Heinrich Isaac (1450-1517) a Flemish composer active in Florence in the court of Lorenzo il Magnifico, and Johannes Martini (c. 1440-1498), a musician at the Este court in 1491. There are also other texts in French, Italian, Spanish and German, out of a total of 268 compositions, 110 are anonymous and 158 are more or less well-known musicians.

The manuscript is illustrated by fine miniatures. Folio IIIv shown here is particularly interesting both from decorative and musical point of view. At the centre of the page, against a uniform blue ground, is set the circular canon with the words ‘Mundus et musica et totus concentus Bartholomaeus Ramis’. The resolution of the canon is within the circle. This fine miniature and the two that follow are attributed to Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni.

With this manuscript the technique of fully coloured leaves is introduced to Florentine illumination; they were very rare in Florence, compared with other European centres.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 9 minutes):

Josquin Desprez: Motet (In principio erat verbum)

This miniature is from a book printed in Florence in 1488. The book, one of the first books printed in Greek, contains the works of Homer. The font of the Greek letters had been designed especially for this book. The miniature depicts Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici (1472-1473) to whom the book was dedicated. Piero was the oldest son of and at the age of seventeen, luckless successor to Lorenzo the Magnificent.

The book contains also other miniatures by Gherardo.

This codex is considered the basic textual source for editions of the literary works by Lucrezia Tornabuoni, wife of Piero di Cosimo from 1444 and mother of Lorenzo the magnificent. The illuminations are attributed to Gherardo di Giovanni.

This page of the Missal is illustrated by an Annunciation and some scenes from Dante’s Divine Comedy.

This is a detached fresco, originally painted circa 1473 by Gherardo di Giovanni and said to have been repainted in 1560 by Francesco Brina, from the fa�ade of the Church of Sant’Egidio.

The Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova is the oldest hospital still active in Florence.

The painting seems to have been part of a series illustrating the ‘Triumphs’ by the poet Petrarch (1304-1374). Love’s arrows break against Chastity’s shield; she waves the chain with which he will be bound. A companion painting in Turin shows Love bound in Chastity’s triumphal chariot.

Other paintings in the series also survive. They were probably made for a piece of Florentine furniture towards the end of the 15th century.

Formerly this panel was attributed various members of Domenico Ghirlandaio’s circle, since the 1970s it is attributed to Gherardo di Giovanni. Originally the panel was a circular tondo, the present octagonal form is the result of later cutting. In the background St Jerome appears as a penitent in the desert.