Guglielmo Giraldi
Guglielmo Giraldi (* in Ferrara ) is an Italian miniaturist from Ferrara, one of the most important of the Italian Renaissance . Famous for the Codex Urbinate Latino 365, which he created for the Duke of Urbino Federico da Montefeltro , which depicts some episodes of Dante's Inferno and Purgatory.
Life
Between Ferrara and Mantua
Guglielmo Giraldi (or Ziraldi) was born the son of the tailor Giovanni de 'Ziraldi called il Magro. The date of birth and death are not known. Based on a first artistic work from 1448, the Italian librarian and historian Luigi Michelini Tocci (1910-2000) suggested an age of about 25 years at that time. Giraldi's biographical and artistic activity, which began in 1441 and ended in 1496, suggests a long life. So he was born around 1423 and died in 1496 at the earliest.
After he and his friend and colleague Cosmè Tura received the tonsure (presumably the deacon ordination) in the Cathedral of Ferrara on November 12, 1441, Giraldi was given to him by Lionello d'Este, Marchese of Ferrara, because of his artistic talent attentive. Giraldi also worked at the Este farm after Lionello's death (1450) and was hired by the brother of the late Marchese Borso d'Este . While Giraldi worked on the Aeneid and other scenes on the Virgil corpus between 1457 and 1459 , the Venetian patrician Leonardo Sanuto, then based in Ferrara, contributed to the artistic ornamentation of the famous Borso d'Este Bible . In addition, we know that Giraldi also worked in Mantua, as can be seen from a letter from 1469 to Barbara von Brandenburg , the wife of Ludovico Gonzaga .
In the service of Federico da Montefeltro
The service in the library of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, began around 1478 thanks to the intercession of the Volterran calligrapher Matteo Contugi, who copied the Dante Terzine. At the court of Urbino, where Giraldi stayed until 1480 and alternated with stays in Ferrara, he received the appreciation of Duke Federigo, for whom Giraldi also wrote a gospel and continued the Virgil begun by Sanudo. Giraldi (assisted by his nephew Alessandro Leon), after two years of work, publishes Hell and some scenes from Dante's Purgatory, which becomes the Urbinate Latino 365 manuscript, currently kept in the Vatican Apostolic Library. The work is characterized by its color representation and the vibrancy that emerges from the scenes designed by Giraldi and are the result of the renewed artistic ideas of the Renaissance.
Translation after Giordana Canova Mariani: The Dante Urbinate
“The depiction consists of a series of large illustrations, each at the beginning of each book, in which Giraldi depicts the situations and characters of the various circles of Dante with narrative élan, with great imagination and effectiveness of the fantasies, with rare dramatic intensity and with a tremendous quality of color and light, pale or fuzzy, which can produce an extraordinary emotional impact. "
The last few years
Back in Ferrara Giraldi continued to work for the new Duke Ercole I and continued his activity as a miniaturist. In 1486 he finally received the sacrament of ordination (presumably meaning ordination to the priesthood). He was the archpriest of San Giovanni di Sassocorvaro in 1494 . In his will of 1478 he ordered to be buried in the monastery of San Cristoforo in Ferrara, a place that was particularly close to his heart.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Federica Toniolo: Giraldi, Guglielmo. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Volume 56, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2001, (Italian).
- ↑ a b c d e f Luigi Michelini Tocci: Giraldi, Guglielmo. In: Umberto Bosco (ed.): Enciclopedia Dantesca. Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1970, (Italian).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Giordana Canova Mariani: Il miniatore Guglielmo Giraldi | Alumina
- ↑ ms. Urbinate Latino 365
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Giraldi, Guglielmo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ziraldi, Guglielmo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian painter of the early Renaissance |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ferrara |
| DATE OF DEATH | 15th century |