X-Nico

unusual facts about manuscript illumination



1420s in art

1420: Jean Fouquet - French painter, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature (died 1481)

Anicia Juliana

The frontispiece features her depiction, the first donor portrait in the history of manuscript illumination, flanked by the personifications of Magnanimity and Prudence, with an allegory of the "Gratitude of the Arts" prostrate in front of her.

Simone Martini

Simone's art owes much to French manuscript illumination and ivory carving: examples of such art were brought to Siena in the fourteenth century by means of the Via Francigena, a main pilgrimage and trade route from Northern Europe to Rome.


see also

Master of Saint Francis

This was largely based on the later works of Giunta Pisano but also shows the influence of such Umbrian artists as Rainaldetto di Ranuccio, Simeone and Machilone and of contemporary manuscript illumination, for example the Gospel Book of Giovanni da Gaibena (Padua, Bib. Capitolare).

Nikolaus Glockendon

His manuscript illumination The Holy Trinity particularly demonstrates the influence of Albrecht Dürer's Adoration of the Trinity, also known as the Landauer Altarpiece, painted in 1511.