Il "Filostrato" Morgan 371 e la miniatura tra il Regno di Napoli e lo Stato della Chiesa agli inizi del Quattrocento

• Autores: Teresa D'Urso
• Localización: Rivista di storia della miniatura, ISSN 1126-4772, Nº. 19, 2015, págs. 73-90
• Idioma: italiano
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• Resumen

  • The "Filostrato" Morgan 371 and manuscript painting between the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States at the beginning of the Quatteocento.

    Moving from the reexamination of a richly illustrated exemplar of Boccacio's "Filostrato" (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 371), this study uncovers a noteworthy production of illuminated manuscripts flourished between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples during the first quarter of the Quattrocento. In the first part, the essay analyses the context of the making of the "Filostrato", illustrated with 59 washed pen-drawings generally considered to be by a Neapolitan hand. A cross-examination of the initial subscription (today partly illegible) and of some known documents related to the Palazzo Apostolico in Rome reveals the provenance and geographical location of the scribe, Pace di Giuliano da Olevano Romano, who signed and dated the manuscript in 1414. Furthermore, the owner is tentatively identified with Vito de Grignano, a confidant of queen Giovanna II of Anjou-Durazzo. A close analysis allows us to identify two different groups of artists at work on this manuscript -one on the illustrations and one on the illuminated borders, the initials, and the scene on f. 35v. The drawings show a late 14th-century Umbrian culture in line with the work ascribed to the Master of the "Dormitio" of Terni, whose workshop realized the fresco cycle inspired by Boccaccio's "Teseida" in the Rocca of Spoleto.

    The hand of the illuminator, instead, is recognized in a sumptuosly decorated Italian vernacular translation of Seneca's "Tragedie" (Madrid, Biblitoeca Nacional del España, Res 230), revealing the influence of the impetuous lenguage of the Breviary written in 1404 for Enrico Tomacelli, abbot of Montecassino (Oxford, Keble College, 30), as well as similarities with some illuminated manuscripts from the Abruzzo area. In the second part, the article retraces the impact of the "Filostrato" and "Seneca" Master on the later developments of miniature painting in the Kingdom of Naples, so far charecterized by a substantial lack of examples. The ascendancy of the master's language can be clearly detected behind the fullpage coat of arms painted in the so-called "Messale del dragone" (Benevento, Biblitoeca Capitolare, 48) and in some of the oldest illuminated pages of the famous "Codice di Santa Marta" (Napoli, Archivio di Stato, 99 C.I). The owner of the coat of arms is identified as Antonio de Castellono di Montefusco, likely the same person mentioned as king Ladislao of Anjou-Durazzo's ambassador in 1410. On the basis of stylistic comparisons, the illuminated page with Luigi II's coat of arms -in fact Luigi III, who entered the Neapolitan confraternity of Santa Marta in 1424- is ascribed to the Master of the Missal's coat of arms. The prestigious patronage network and the stylistic relationships with the Abruzzo region suggest a possible hint to the work of the still elusive Nardo di maestro Andrea da Sulmona, to whom Ladislao conferred the title of "familiaris" on 10 May 1407.