Anna De Floriani MICHELE DA GENOA, MINIATURIST: THE STAGES OF A

DEVELOPMENT

Already in 1918 Laudadeo Testi, in publishing his studies on the illuminated chores of San
Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, recognized Michele from Genoa to whom the scholar
convincingly assigned four Antiphonaries, dated from 1492-1497, a Mantegnesque of strict
observance, indicating in particular in the illuminated Circumcision on c. 39v of the
Antiphonary P. N. 4 (fig. 1), a punctual derivation from the painting of the same subject due
to Mantegna and now preserved in the Uffizi. The judgment of Testi became almost a
historiographic topos for the subsequent criticism which actually dealt only fleetingly with our
illuminator and only a few years ago Paola Ceschi Lavagetto suggested a "talking" contrast
between the Annunciation of Michael, to c. 1 of the choir P, N. 4 (fig. 2). and the
Annunciation of the triptych attributed to Carlo Braccescol3), now preserved in the Louvre
but coming from an unspecified Genoese oratory of the Fregoso family which probably
constituted its original destination, and in doing so, Ceschi Lavagetto implicitly laid the
foundations for reconsideration - more attentive ration of the illuminator's personality,
evidently more complex and varied than previously believed. The comparison established
by Ceschi Lavagerto also makes it possible to formulate a series of observations: I will briefly
surmise on the former, which concern the ways in which the relationship between Michele da
Genova and Braccesco could be realized, as well as the implications that follow with regard
to the date of the Annunciation now in Paris. Instead, I will shortly resume a particular bit of
that relationship, the one that concerns the links between the illuminator and the figurative
culture of his homeland: a theme that has proved fruitful in results, as I hope to demonstrate.
On the relationship between Michele da Genova and Braccesco, it appears evident that he
had to practice the painter rather than the illuminator rather than vice versa, if only for
practical reasons: the easiest access. that is, to an altarpiece painting than to a complex of
choral books intended for the use of a monastic community. There remains, of course, the
doubt that there is a common model from which both Braccesco and Michele have
independently drawn the iconographic formula, rare and happy, of the Annunciations placed
in comparison; however, the lack of identification of such a prototype induces us to
concentrate our attention - at least until new elements come into play on the front between
the painting and the miniature.

This decorates, as it is called, the Antiphonary PN 4 of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma,

which is to be recognized in one of those Antiphonaries of Tempore for which there was a
payment record, published by Testi, in a ledger of the convent that covered the years 1492-
1497): for the code P, N. 4, and for another Antiphonary, always of time (L, N. 2), it is indeed
possible to restrict the allocation of the last years of the period considered in the ledger.
It follows that the execution of the triptych of the Louvre, of which the Annunciation
constitutes the central compartment, must have dated back to 1495-96 at the latest if we
consider that Michele da Genova appears in the same register as early as 1492 when he is
paid for two non-perpetual Graduals (choirs, psalms) - it can also be assumed that he did not
observe Braccesco's work before moving from Genoa to Parma. However, we do not know
if the illuminator’s stay in the Emilian city was uninterrupted, and therefore the backdating of
the Annunciation of the Louvre back to the very early 1990s, that can only be proposed
hypothetically.
In any case, having circumscribed the ante quem term (specify the known limits of dating for
events) for the Parisian Annunciation by 1495-96 allows us to clarify the chronological
coordinates of Braccesco's late production with somewhat narrower approximation margins
than those that the critics had been able to determine so far.

Returning now to Michele da Genova, we can observe how the close iconographic link
between the Annunciation of the choirs P, N. 4 and the one painted by Carlo Braccesco
testifies how the formation of the illuminator (who in Parma appears artistically "adult" ) had
to practice not only on Mantegnesque examples of criticism already identified but also on
figurative texts present in Genoa, the city from which the Parisian triptych comes and the
centre where Michele probably began his own activity.

This possibility is supported by the decoration of a volume that contains the historical and
didactic books of the Bible, ms. Gen. 1060 of the University Library of Glasgow, in which I
propose to recognize a work by young Michele. The manuscript is decorated with historiated
initials and largely decorated and figured margins (figs. 3-9), partly unfinished, where we find
the same stylistic features present in the miniatures of the Parma choirs: physiognomies,
draperies, robes embroidered with horizontal stripes and above all a decorative effect of
superficial - in the graphics of the folds, in the vibrant underlining of the hems of the
garments, in the wrapping of the cloaks - which tends to lighten the figures, albeit sometimes
distorting their monumental structure.

Similarly, in the Glasgow codex and in the Parma choirs, is the decorative apparatus that
constitutes the structure of the initials, based on the alternation of matched cornucopias and
somewhat unstable candelabra. The original Genoese destination of the Bible now in
Glasgow is testified by the presence, on the frontispiece of the manuscript (fig. 3), of the coat
of arms of the Fregoso (or Camporregoso) family, surmounted by a golden compass on
which a partially abraded scroll is wrapped, and placed above a passing wolf, also golden,
facing left. If the reference to the Fregosos constitutes a further confirmation of the
relationship between Michele da Genova and Carlo Braccesco - in turn, linked, as is well
known, to the commissioning of this family, the presence of the two companies described
suggests, for the Bible, dating to the penultimate decade of the '400. The Fregoso coat of
arms, accompanied by the compass and from the wolf, as well as from a cartouche with the
motto PER NON FAL (L) IR (for not to fail), also appears on the title page of the Annals of
Giorgio Stella, ms. 4, returned from France, from the State Archives of Genoa, written in
1490. The presence of these elements indicates, without a doubt, that both the Genoese
and the Glasgow manuscripts were made for the same character of the Fregoso family
whose personal distinctive sign was the motto "not to fail".
Although for the moment, it has not been possible to arrive at a precise identification of the
client of the Annals and of the Bible, it can be seen right now that the recipient of this is
presumably recognized in one of the two armed characters, kneeling in the foreground at the
feet of the Eternal Father, at c. 50 of the Glasgow code (fig. 4). In the meantime, this
hypothesis allows us to exclude from the list of possible clients the most famous member of
the family, Paolo Fregoso (archbishop of Genoa since 1453, cardinal since 1480, doge
starting from 1462), who certainly would have been sued with insignia of religious and civil
power, as well as with the attributes of warlike virtue. It is hoped that future research will
further narrow the field of possible identifications, thus clarifying the forms in which the
commissioning of the Fregoso family was exercised, which - incidentally - is often linked to a
highly prestigious book collection.

As we have said, in the decoration of the Glasgow Bible, the work of an artist in training is
revealed, exhibiting the fruits of an updated culture on squared and mantegnesque
"antiques" (two-tone cameos, with profiles of emperors or mythological scenes, in the frames
of the first four illuminated papers; the triumphal panoplies in the entablature of f. 39), but
which at the same time betrays the signs of a Lombard matrix mediation that acts, in all
probability, like a filter between our artist and more genuinely Paduan outcomes. Traces of
this intervention are evident in the presentation, more naturalistic than antiquarian, of the two
heads in profile and of the central one, placed in front, in the upper margin of c. 39, which
are framed by oculi rendered in perspective as had suggested Vincenzo Foppa in the lantern
of the Portinari chapel (fig. 5); and then in the reference to Braccesco, recognizable in the
use of unusual striped clothes (often worn from characters dressed in oriental style) and in
the adoption of certainly pointed physiognomies: indeed, in the words of Longhi, "caprigne";
and finally in the somewhat unstable construction of the candelabra, especially at f. 4 and
on c. 23v, (figs. 6-7), where not only the basic forms (the pods, стручки) are repeated but
also their overlap according to a continuously mobile point of view that we find on the
internal of the portal which, from the first cloister, gives access at the Certosa di Pavia. In
the frame of the leaf of this open doorway, as is known, by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo
between 1466 and 1470 there are also plump putti with an expanded, almost flattened
model, whose attitudes are echoed in the symmetrical and clumsy movements of the putti
designed by Michele da Genova among the various elements of the aforementioned
candelabra.
Therefore, if there is no doubt that our illuminator is referring to Lombard culture (which in
part could also be known to him through the testimonies that it was leaving in Genoa and
Liguria), his direct knowledge of Venetian art is far from being excluded, and in particular of
the Paduan and Venetian miniature. Looking through the Glasgow Bible, in fact, we witness
a progressive acquisition, by our artist, of a pagination system that was developing precisely
in the field of the Venetian miniature mainly by the "Maestro dei Putti", from about 1470
onwards. In a very concise way, it can be said that this layout technique that aimed above all
at overcoming, with a solution as brilliant as it is paradoxical, the visual contrast that arises
from the perception of the two-dimensional structure of the page and that, illusionistically
three-dimensional, of the frame implemented through architectural elements, it envisaged
that the writing sheet was imagined as resting on top of the building (a triumphal arch or
similar structure) which constituted its frame and embellishment, and was therefore
perceived as being placed on a more advanced plane than the architectonic members.

Michele da Genova, who does not even seem to pose the problem of the relationship
between writing and decoration in the first illuminated papers of the Bible (rice-seller
essentially on the surface, in the decorated edges of c. I, and re-proposing the now usual
architectural c. 4 and above all to f. 23v), he seems to become aware of the contrast we
have indicated starting from c. 39. where, however, the solution adopted, which consists in
the insertion, along the external margin of the writing, of a small column that goes into the
upper entablature, appears rather clumsy. A more conscious application of Venetian
solutions is instead found in the unfortunately unfinished decoration of the last illuminated
papers (from c. 65 to c. 221) (figs. 8-9), where the two columns of writing are divided, at the
bottom, by an 'imaginary laceration that increases the illusionistic value of the decorated
papers, as it is suggested that the sheets are more "real" because the torn crys were soiled,
and that they rest on the architectural frames, which in turn are prospectively constructed in
increasingly accomplished and wise.

The progressive mastery of the illusionistic solutions of the matrix that Michele da Genova
shareв with other illuminators, is accompanied, in the Glasgow code, also by an ever greater
Plastic prominence of the figures and by an increasingly thick game of adherent draperies,
which repeat the stylistic features adopted by artists of more or less direct Paduan ancestry:
all characters - in addition to supporting the hypothesis of a "study" trip by our illuminator
who in the Venetian area, when perhaps he had already started the decoration of the Bible,
stop also the anteriority of the manuscript in question with respect to the Parma choirs,
where the Mantegnesque matrix now appears to be completely assimilated. Therefore,
since the dating of the Antiphonaries of Parma can be coiled, as we have said, between
1492 and 1497, I believe that the period of formation of Michael from Genoa to which the
Glasgow Bible is a significant fruit of what he had proposed by connecting the Bible to the
Annals of the State Archives of Genoa, dates back to about 1480-1490, if the maturation of
the artist is reflected in a certain uniformity of language and in a constant choice of
decorative and stylistic modules that make it easy to recognize Michele’s hand in the
context of those liturgical accomplishments, and indeed allow the reconstruction to be made
with a cut-out miniature from the Cini collection, depicting the Baptism of Christ, previously
assigned to an anonymous Lombard or Veronese artist (fig. 10) but which was probably
removed from the Antiphonary P, N. 4 by San Giovanni Evangelista and which is to be
reported to Michele da Genova (30), Another miniature cut out of the Musée des Beaux-Arts
of Lille, representing the Nativity) (fig. I1), also appears close to the decoration of the Parma
codices especially in the construction of the initial: and despite the difficulty of identifying the
manuscript from which it was removed ( 02), it seems to me that the attribution of the
Nativity to our illuminator (and probably to his activity in the context of the manuscripts of St.
John the Evangelist is more than plausible, even if it should be subjected to direct
verification. In the Parma choirs (figs. 1-2, 12-16), Michele’s reached maturity can also be
measured by the absence of those moments of experimentation that characterized the
Fregoso Bible. The illuminator effortlessly adapts, in the historiated initials of the
Antiphonaries, to the conventions proper to choral liturgical use (where we almost never find,
for example, the adoption of the architectural title page which is linked rather to a more
humanistic and of destination, and indeed recovers some elements of matrice (Ardo
-mediavaie3s, The adaptation of older compositional and decorative modules seems to me
evident above all in the introduction of grinning dragons in the structure of the initials (fig .
12): this motif seems to have been interpreted by Michele da Genova with certain freedom
since it is enriched with figures of putti that emerge from the open jaws of the monsters as
from much more cassian cornucopias. We are therefore faced with a "modern", if not
unscrupulous, interpretation of Gothic fashions, analogous for example to that made by
Antonio Maria da Villafora (or, as was believed until a few years ago. Antonio Maria
Sforza ), to which some miniatures are attributed in the chorales for San Michele in Bosco in
Bologna), and whose making can be approached to that of Michele not only for the similar
structure of the initials but also in the simplified plastic rendering of some female voices (fig.
13). This is an element to make both artists laugh at a more or less direct Ferrarese matrix
and, ultimately, pierirancescana, whom Michele may have known through Martino da
Modena, also present with some miniatures in the choirs of San Giovanni Evangelista. In
the figurations of the Parma Antiphonaries due to the illuminators, however, numerous
consonances with certain Lombard figurative outcomes are still noticeable, which do not
refer only to the analogous assimilation of the Paduan-Mantegnesque modules, but which,
as they involve some elements of differentiation of making of Michele and of the Lombard
production from those models, indicate a persistence of the links between Michele and the
culture that had largely conditioned his formation. Here we are probably faced with parallel
results, rather than derivative relationships, since in Parma our illuminator appears endowed
with an independence that derives from a broader knowledge of different figurative cultures
(Venetian, Emilian, Ferrara); it seems to me, however, appropriate to point out some of the
most interesting aspects of this parallelism. Certain frowning features, for example, which
we had already indicated with regard to the Glasgow Bible close to the manner of
Braccesco, appear several times in the Parma miniatures (fig. 14) with an insistence that
finds confirmation in the less "Leonardo" works of "Master of the Sforza Altarpiece" (40);
other more aristocratic and sometimes disdainful (proud, arrogant) facial types, which
Michael uses preferably to represent Christ (fig. 15). they are close to those adopted by the
"Master of the Missal Arcimboldi" eponymous manuscript (after 1492), where we also find
similar decorative modules (dragons, cornucopias faced and connected by fruit wreaths) in
the construction of the initials (4). The contribution of Lombard figurative culture at the end
of the century, now inclined to incorporate at least the most striking results of Leonardo's
research, is then evident in the later miniatures of a Gradual preserved in the University
Library of Genoa-2), which seem to me to refer to Michele on the basis of palms contrasted
with the figurative initials of Parma (fig. 16, 17, 19), which affect the structure of the letters as
well as the physiognomies of the characters and the trend of the drapery, as well as peculiar
stylistic features such as the delicate graphics that lighten the edges of the garments, the
prominences of the folds, the veins of the foliage, the margins of the candelabra. On
Pentecost of c. 41 (fig. 17), in particular, not only links with the miniatures of Parma stand
out, but also the signs of an uninterrupted, indeed continuously renewed, relationship with
Lombard culture. It is testified above all by the softer rendering of the modulate, which
appears almost "dented", in close harmony with the ways of certain Milanese production
such as is found in some initials that refer to a group of miniatures from the Wildenstein
collection, datable between 1499 and 1511 and which recently Mariani Canova has
reasonably proposed to attribute to the late activity of the aforementioned "Master of the
Archimboid Missal" (43). to a gradual abandonment of some stylistic features and certain
decorative formulas typical of the Parma period: the draperies become less adherent to the
body and therefore less close to the Paduan-Mantegnesque models followed so closely in
the miniatures of the choirs of San Giovanni Evangelista; the presence of fantastic animals
is reduced to the full-bodied and elastic interweaving of the two dragon-dolphins that frame
the Pentecost of c. 41, while, in the initials decorated by the same Graduale which refer to
Michael, the adoption of "Renaissance" ornamental formulas becomes more frequent and
punctual. This is the case of the magician with phytological terminations which already
enriched some of the Parmesan figures, but which, in proportion, recurs much more often in
the Genoese choir; this is the case above all of the reduction of the plant decoration to the
sole head of a flowered canto (fig. 20) (which already appeared in the Annunciation of the
choir P, N. 4); Finally, it is the case of the adoption of a repertoire of classical origin, made
up of an- fore, cups and podded pyxes (fig. 21), which reveals the attentive interest. on the
part of the illuminator, for the results that the most updated figurative culture was developing
on the texts that the ancient world had left in Rome. Thus the plant curlicues used by
Michele da Genova, soft though symmetrical, find parallels both in the sketches of the Codex
Escurialensis, attributed to a Florentine artist of 1493-1494 (47), and in certain ornamental
borders assigned at the Mantuan time ( before about 1495) or the Milanese period (after
that date) of the Mantegnesque engraver Zoan Andrea.

And again the Mantegnesque circle refers to the repertoire of classical motifs adopted by our
illuminator: I am referring, for example, to some engravings where pods or smooth vases of
various shapes appear, but always inspired by ancient models that have been doubtfully
attributed to Giovanni Antonio da Brescia during his stay in Rome after 1506. It is not
possible to specify whether prints and drawings constituted the only means by which Michele
from Genoa elaborated the updated ornamental formulas that he exhibits in the Graduale in
the University Library, or if our illuminator has known directly. Perhaps during the trip to
Rome. the ancient models that form the basis of those repertoires. The links observed allow
us to propose instead. for the choir of the Biblioteca Universitaria, dating around 1500,
which would explain both the relationship with the Parma miniatures, as well as the partial
detachment of them, as well as the found parallelism with these ornamental solutions. The
recurrence of the same decorative repertoire that characterizes the choraleorale of the
University Library also in the horrified letters (figs. 22-23) of the first part (dated 1509) of a
Gradual preserved at the Franciscan convention by NS del Monte in Genova), allows us to
relate these initials to the equal of the historiated that appear in the same files of the
manuscript (figs. - to the extreme activity of Michele. The characters of the choir del Monte
also recall draperies (31), those traced C4-27) by our miniaturist in the compositions of the
Parma codices and the Graduale del Universitaria: and the subtle graphics that characterize
Michele’s hand in those - albeit partially impoverished - cover the figures and above all in the
thin and vibrant line that borders the profiles of the leaves in the initials and in their internal
decoration. Of course, in the choral more: the making of the miniature has become so free
and loose as to be configured as manuscripts recur - even along with the garments that re -
a progressive softening and discarding of the pictorial material, so as to even confine. in
some cases, with a certain carelessness of execution. But this formal difference between
the oldest and surest works of Michael, just examined, and the Graduale of Monte seems to
me to be fully justified if we consider that between the choirs of the University Library and the
most recent one there are at least 5 or 6 years. In this lapse of time, the maturation of the
artist may have resolved itself precisely in that freedom of sign that has just been observed,
according to a line of development which, among other things, had already come to the light
in the passage from the choirs of Parma to that of the University. In this case, it would not
even be necessary to hypothesize the existence of a possible follower of Michele who, on
his traces, had executed the miniatures of the Monte: such a hypothesis would be in contrast
also with the substantial isolation of Michele in the conironti of the Genoese miniature
production of the last years of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. As part of this
production, in fact, it has not so far been possible to trace codes which, without being directly
referable to our illuminator, reveal their decisive influence and can therefore suggest the
existence of a current attributable to the teaching of Michele.

The panorama of the Genoese miniature had instead taken shape, I know partially as the
result of a faithful, and often repetitive, re-proposition of mid-century Lombard models, which
were sometimes combined with flamboyant ideas, it is possible to recognize the signs of the
Paduan-Mantegnesque culture present in Michele's art and which indeed allow proposing a
parallel between the ways of our illuminator and those of a Foppa, a Braccesco, a Mazones,
who at the end of the 15th century introduced figurative vocabulary and syntax in Ligurian
painting, borrowed precisely from that culture, often filtered through a more " shadowy
"sensitivity. The absence of Michele from Genoa from his hometown in that last part of the
fifteenth century which, in painting, saw, for example, the more "Renaissance-Scimental"
realizations of a Mazone (Sistine Chapel of Savonalss) undermining the isolation in which
the illuminator came to find himself on his return to Parma in the early sixteenth century.
And it is equally probable that the establishment of this situation contributed to the choices of
the clients that appear to us today more such as the Della Rovere polyptych and the
frescoes of the same, in all probability, a determinant factor - - updated and open in the case
of numerous works of public destination. even if they are carried out privately, and more
closely linked to a by now consolidated local radiance in the case of illuminated manuscripts,
especially if they are of liturgical use. -whatever the weight to be assigned to each- -the
isolation of Michele da Genova towards it It must finally be emphasized that Scuno of the
various factors at play in the contemporary miniature panorama is reflected in the originality
of the results obtained by him. and how in turn this originality is the result of the constant
effort of updating and re-elaboration carried out by the artist who, starting from a
Mantegnesque training through Lombard mediations, was able to gradually graft into it the
most interesting results of the most current figurative culture.