Commission of Doge Giovanni Bembo to Francesco Contarini as Procurator de Citra
author
Giovanni Bembo
(Venice, 1543 - 1618)
Date1615
Place MadeVenice, Veneto, Italy, Europe
MediumPaint, gold paint, and ink on vellum
Dimensions29 x 21 x 5 cm (11 7/16 x 8 1/4 x 1 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsBooks
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession number2.c.1.2
eMuseum ID721797
Previous Number18F27e42-s
EmbARK ObjectID13679
TMS Source ID2562
Last Updated8/9/24
Description1 vol., (161 + 6 leaves, 20 lines) : vellum ; ill. 29 cmStatus
Not on viewWeb CommentarySt. Francis of Assisi presenting a Venetian senator to the Virgin and Child, in a frame with leone andante, the Contarini family arms and a cherub head.
Presented in an ornamental frame on a faux exposed-brick wall, this miniature shows the book's owner, Francesco Contarini, and his patron saint, adoring the enthroned Virgin and Child. The diagonal composition of the figures exchanging gazes, which creates a psychological connection between them, was borrowed from sixteenth-century Venetian altarpieces. The mountainous landscape beyond evokes the Italian mainland governed by Venice. This commissione records Contarini's solemn oath (giuramento) and the statutes (capitolare) of his post as Procurator of the three districts north of the Grand Canal in Venice. He wears the dress of the Venetian nobility, a robe of crimson velvet with fur-trim and wide sleeves. Draped over his left arm is the golden stole of the knighthood of the "Stola d'Oro", which was granted at the end of one of his numerous ambassadorial missions. Contarini became doge in 1623 but died the following year.
Source: Anne-Marie Eze, Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice, special exhibition on view in the museum's Long Gallery, May 3 through June 19, 2011.
Presented in an ornamental frame on a faux exposed-brick wall, this miniature shows the book's owner, Francesco Contarini, and his patron saint, adoring the enthroned Virgin and Child. The diagonal composition of the figures exchanging gazes, which creates a psychological connection between them, was borrowed from sixteenth-century Venetian altarpieces. The mountainous landscape beyond evokes the Italian mainland governed by Venice. This commissione records Contarini's solemn oath (giuramento) and the statutes (capitolare) of his post as Procurator of the three districts north of the Grand Canal in Venice. He wears the dress of the Venetian nobility, a robe of crimson velvet with fur-trim and wide sleeves. Draped over his left arm is the golden stole of the knighthood of the "Stola d'Oro", which was granted at the end of one of his numerous ambassadorial missions. Contarini became doge in 1623 but died the following year.
Source: Anne-Marie Eze, Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice, special exhibition on view in the museum's Long Gallery, May 3 through June 19, 2011.
BibliographyNotesIsabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court. (Boston, 1922), pp. 40-41.
Seymour de Ricci and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. (New York, 1935), p. 933, no. 21.
Helena Szépe. "Isabella Stewart Gardner's Venetian manuscripts" in Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), p. 235, fig. 174.
Anne-Marie Eze. "Italian Illuminated Manuscripts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." Rivista di Storia della Miniatura (2012), pp. 91, 94.
Anne-Marie Eze. "'Safe from Destruction by Fire': Isabella Stewart Gardner's Venetian Manuscripts." Journal for Manuscript Studies (Fall 2017), pp. 201-202, fig. 5.
Helena Katalin Szépe. Venice Illuminated: Power and Painting in Renaissance Manuscripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), pp. 152-153, fig. 4.36.
Seymour de Ricci and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. (New York, 1935), p. 933, no. 21.
Helena Szépe. "Isabella Stewart Gardner's Venetian manuscripts" in Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), p. 235, fig. 174.
Anne-Marie Eze. "Italian Illuminated Manuscripts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." Rivista di Storia della Miniatura (2012), pp. 91, 94.
Anne-Marie Eze. "'Safe from Destruction by Fire': Isabella Stewart Gardner's Venetian Manuscripts." Journal for Manuscript Studies (Fall 2017), pp. 201-202, fig. 5.
Helena Katalin Szépe. Venice Illuminated: Power and Painting in Renaissance Manuscripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), pp. 152-153, fig. 4.36.
MarksNotesInscribed in pencil (first flyleaf): "'The Capitolari of the Procurators are not common & some have great beauty in the illumination.' Cheney, Remarks on illum. Venetian Mss., p. 61" [hand of Charles Eliot Norton]
ProvenanceNotesCollection of the scholar and critic Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Charles Eliot Norton on 3 July 1903 for $2,500. (with 18 other Venetian manuscripts)
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Charles Eliot Norton on 3 July 1903 for $2,500. (with 18 other Venetian manuscripts)
Francesco Donato
17 July 1547
Nicolò da Ponte
26 August 1578
