belbello da pavia and collaborators
Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment;
binding: leather over wood boards
with copper alloy corner mounts and bosses
Made in Lombardy, Italy
in 1462, the successful artistic career of Belbello da Pavia seemed
to take a disastrous turn, as he was exiled from the court of Mantua
for a notorious crime.In fact, however, his move to Venice proved to be good fortune,
both for the artist and the abbot of San Giorgio Maggiore,
who commissioned him to create a decorated ensemble
of choir book. This volume from that ensemble contains
chants to be sung at daily prayer services from Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas, up to lent,
the season of penance and fast before easter.
the startling brilliance of pink and acid green
is characteristic of Belbello’s work, and the attention lavished on the decorated letters is evidence
of the importance of the comission. Regrettably,
only three of the bound volumes are known to survive today, and this one, the figurative
imagery of which was cut out in the nineteenth century, is the only one to have left Venice