The Library of a 'Humanist Prince' Federico da Montefeltro and His Manuscripts [by M.G. Critelli]

ser Ricciardo di Nanni

f. 1445-1480

Urb.lat.681

Among the most famous illuminator of the fifteenth century in Florence, he received a double artistic mastery, from Battista di Niccolò da Padova and Filippo Maria Torelli. He established himself as an illustrator of manuscripts with classical contents and soon became one of the favorite illuminators of the Medici family, above all of Piero and Giovanni (for examples see De ira of Seneca, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 6376; Naturalis historia of Pliny, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 48. 8; il De bello Iudaico by Josephus Flavius, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 66. 9). This particular orientation, in addition to the commission of the chorales hymnaries of the Badia fiorentina in the 60s, allowed him to deepen his pronounced interest in the ancient world, also intensified by his contact with the collection of cameos of the lords of Florence. Ser (equivalent of messer) Ricciardo then applied his interest to the decorative apparatuses of the manuscripts that he worked on, which then virtually became the unmistakable mark of his style. His very recognizable style also includes: the attention to the rendering of physiognomy, the exhibition of hilly landscapes enhanced with pools of water that often qualify the backgrounds of his portraits, the construction of a lively and exuberant page, both in the color tones used as well as in formal aspects. One main element of his poetic expression includes the relationship between text and image: he in fact creates actual figurative commentary, thus allowing a profile of a true intellectual and not a mere executor of fashionable illustrative apparatuses to emerge. For example, the hand of ser Ricciardo is recognizable in Urb. lat. 681.

Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento, pp. 55-73; BOLLATI, Ricciardo di Nanni, pp. 906-908.

General Bibliography

Urb. lat. 681, ff. 151r and 163v 

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