A Fool, initial 'D', from an illuminated choirbook on vellum.

£7,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

This is an excellent example of the work of Antonio Maria da Villafora (documented in Padua 1469-1511), showing his detailed technique and strong characterisation. Although originating in Villafora in Polesina, Antonio Maria’s documented career was entirely in Padua. He was active over a long period and illuminated manuscripts and incunables for individual patrons and monasteries in and around the city. Some of his most significant works were commissions for Pietro Barozzi, Bishop of Padua for whom he worked from 1487 to 1506. 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. He has been described as ‘the most important personality of the Paduan Renaissance in the field of illumination for the output, continuity and quality of his contributions’ (L.P. Gnaccolini*, Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani*, 2004, pp.36-9). The present initial, with the pronounced features such as slightly upturned noses as exemplified by our fool, the attentive modelling and careful and complex build-up of brushstrokes, shows affinities with his work in the last decades of the 15th century including incunables for Barozzi (items 155-8 in La Miniatura a Padova dal medioevo al settecento, eds G.B. Baldisssin, G. Mariani Canova, F. Toniolo, exh. cat. 1999 pp.382-6) and, for example, the initi

• Binding: Hardcover

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