RICCIARDO DI NANNI, Ser - b. ~1430 Firenze, d. ~1480 Firenze

Italian illuminator. He was trained between 1449 and 1452 by Battista di Niccolò da Padova (active from 1425; d. 1452) and after Battista’s death collaborated occasionally with Filippo di Matteo Torelli. Ricciardo was one of the first Florentine artists to be concerned with archaeological discoveries, and this is consistently reflected in his painting. A copy of Plautus’s Comedies (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence), datable before 1450, and belonging to Piero de’ Medici, is thought to be his first autograph work.

In early commissions from the Medici, Ricciardo shows a strong interest in a wide range of Classical ideas, partly derived from gems and cameos in the Medici collections. He was also sensitive to Florentine painting, from the work of Domenico Veneziano to that of the Master of Pratovecchio, and to the narrative style typical of paintings on cassoni. His illustrations are full of biblical symbolism, providing a rich pictorial commentary on the text. This tendency characterizes the works of his early period (1456-59).

The artist illustrated numerous choir books for Florence and Fiesole. In his last period he became more interested in apocalyptic themes. Two works which are characteristic of his last phase are a Book of Hours in Florence (Biblioteca Riccardiana) and Petrarch’s Triumphs in Madrid (Biblioteca Nacional).

Petrarch: Triumphs

This codex is one of the Petrarch manuscripts which are limited to the Triumphs (not containing the Songs). The Triumphs is an allegorical didactic poem about the soul of the poet and the history of mankind. The 7 full-page miniatures in the manuscript are the work of Ser Ricciardo di Nanni. In keeping with Italian tastes of the time, the pictures are surrounded by ornate border ornamentation, which includes an abundance of pictorial gems with mythological and grotesque figures in a foliate and floral latticework inhabited by animals, birds and other creatures. The main figures themselves represent the style of the High renaissance, to which Florence more than anywhere else was home in the late Quattrocento.

On folios 11v and 12r, the miniature on the left page shows Chastity’s triumph over Love, amidst a sumptuous border ornamentation. On the right there is a portrait of the author.