(c) 2014 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Commission of Doge Francesco Donato to Vincenzo Gritti as Lieutenant of Udine

primary Francesco Donato (active Venice, 1545 - 1553, Venice)

binder Emblematic Binder (active Venice, 1530s - about 1552)

illuminator T.° Ve. Master (active 1520s - 1560s)

scribe Girolamo Muriano (active Venice, 1535 - 1551)

Date1546

Place MadeVenice, Veneto, Italy, Europe

MediumInk, paint and gold on vellum

Dimensions24 x 17 x 4.5 cm (9 7/16 x 6 11/16 x 1 3/4 in.)

ClassificationsBooks

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession number2.a.2.1

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryThe elaborate illumination at the front of this manuscript refers to the institutions that governed Venetian life, in order of importance from top to bottom: piety (represented by the Virgin and Child), the state (represented by the Venetian lion), the doge, and nobility (represented by the Gritti famiily arms). The Serenissima's power is conveyed by the military motifs in the border. The male saints are the patrons and namesakes of the doge and Vincenzo Gritti, who received this book for his election as Lieutenant of Udine, a city in north-east Italy. The miniature is by the most skilled and fashionable illuminator of commissioni in sixteenth-century Venice. He takes his name from another illumination with equally graceful figures and luminous bold colors, which is signed 'T.° Ve. painted this 1528'. The signature, however, was added later as a ploy to attribute the splendid work to the most celebrated painter of the period, Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian (about 1488-1576).

Id718981

Last Updated8/9/24

Previous NumberDe Ricci 17

EmbARK ObjectID17564

Previous Number13F27e42-s

Source ID5826