Master of the Sforza Prayer Book

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As a master of the Sforza Prayer Book ( it. Maestro del Libro d'Ore di Bona di Savoia ) is northern Italian illuminator called, the one from 1466 to 1476 a large part of the Book of Hours has painted. The prayer book was originally in the possession of Bona Sforza , wife of Galeazzo Maria Sforza , Duke of Milan ; it gives the artist, who is not known by name, his emergency name .

The master of the Sforza prayer book , along with Antonio da Monza and Francesco Binasco , is counted among the three leading illuminators who worked in Milan at the end of the 15th century. At that time, under the rule of the Duke, known as a patron of the arts , Milan had become a center of art in Northern Italy.

The master of the Sforza prayer book had painted 48 miniatures of the book in Italian style and delivered parts of the prayer book. Then the pages that still had to be colored were stolen. Around 1520 the missing text was added and the Flemish painter Gerard Horenbout painted 16 pictures for it. Horenbout worked at the court of Margaret of Austria , who had inherited the book in 1504. His completion of the book can be evidenced by documents from the court.

The Sforza prayer book, which is only 13 cm high and 10 cm wide, has been in the British Library since 1893 . The pictures of his painters are considered to be an important work of book illumination of the Renaissance . In their splendor, they reflect not only a late medieval religiosity but also the wealth appropriate to its time of origin and the desire for its representation of the Italian Renaissance.

It has been proposed to identify the master of the Sforza prayer book with the painter Giovan Pietro Birago .

The master of the Sforza prayer book probably also worked as a copper engraver ; one of his works well-known among experts is an engraving of the Last Supper after Leonardo da Vinci .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Wescher: Francesco Binasco, miniature painter of the Sforza . In: Yearbook of the Berlin Museums 2, 1960, p. 75.
  2. ^ British Library, call number Add. MS 34294.
  3. ^ Giovan Pietro Birago . In: The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art , online 2002 edition

literature

  • Paul Wescher: Francesco Binasco, miniature painter of the Sforza . In: Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 2, 1960, pp. 75–79.
  • The Sforza Book of Hours . Facsimile edition. Lucerne 1993 to 1995

Web links

  • Sforza Hours , digital edition at the British Library (Accessed October 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Master of the Sforza Prayer Book
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maestro del Libro d'Ore di Bona di Savoia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Northern Italian illuminator
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH 15th century or 16th century