Pietro Guindaleri

Like many artists of his generation, Guindaleri owes his training to the visual revolution instigated by Andrea Mantegna with the Ovetari Chapel of Padua. As an illuminator at the service of the Gonzaga family from the mid-60s, he works for the court of Mantua by producing manuscripts of luxury, probably assisted by the company of a workshop. The illuminated production attributed to him, however, is very small and difficult to identify today, often subject to different evaluations by the critics who rarely come toward some consensus. He illuminates a Historia naturalis of Pliny (Turin, Biblioteca nazionale Universitaria, ms. J. I. 22-23, for the complex and intricate critical affair of this manuscript, see also Giovanni Corenti), copied by Matteo Contugi between 1463 and 1468, with whom perhaps he also collaborates for the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta of Petrarch (London, British Library, Harley 3567). The hand of Guindaleri has also been suggested for Urb. lat. 10 from Federico’s library.