Florence and Matthias Corvinus
The Italy and Hungary of the 15th centuries were closely bound together by political, economic and cultural ties. In their respective foreign policies Hungarian rulers always relied on the assistance of one Italian city-state or the other. Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437) was the first Hungarian ruler to nurture meaningful Italian political ties. He initially formed an alliance with Florence against Venice and Naples, and later pledged armed assistance to Florence during the conflict it was pursuing against Milan. However, their relations were ruined when such help in the war was not forthcoming since Sigismund feared that a weakened Milan would strengthen the power of Venice far too much. Hostilities finally came to an end with the Treaty of Italy in 1433. In the period between Sigismund's death and Matthias Corvinus ascending to the throne (1458) relations between Hungary and the Italian cities became somewhat restrained. However, by marrying Beatrix (1476), the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Eleonóra Estei, Matthias committed himself to the city-states of Central Italy. The position of Florence as an enemy or an ally at any one time was always determined by the composition of the league or depended upon which city-state happened to be in conflict with the Pope. However, whatever Florentine-Hungarian political relations applied had little effect on economic ties. The Florentines primarily pursued commercial and money lending activities in Hungary. They imported textile goods into Hungary, while the Hungarians exported ox-hides and horses to them. The Florentines occupied important economic and ecclesiastical offices - Pipo Ozorai was the prefect of Temes and Sigmund's chief confidant, Andrea Scolrai was the bishop of Várad, but the mint and several Transylvanian salt mines as well as the management of the salt chamber fell into Italian hands. Flourishing economic ties paved the way for Florentine artists. Working at the court of Pipo Ozorai was the painter Masolino da Panicale and the architect and stone mason Manetto di Jacopo, known in Hungary under the name of Manetto Ammannatini. During Matthias' rule Chimenti Camica, who was given an important role in the constriction of the Buda Palace, came to Hungary as did Taddeo Ugoletto, the humanist from Palma, who managed the Bibliotheca Corviniana from 1471, Francesco Antonia del Cherico and his students, - among them Francesco Roselli who made engravings of Boticelli's drawings and illustrated liturgical volumes of the dome of Vienna, who worked in the Buda codex copying workshop, and the Florentine humanist and Neo-Platonist Francesco Bandini, who acquired eternal recognition for his development of Matthias' library.After Matthias' death and during the reign of Ulászló Jagelló II (1490-1516) Hungary was no longer in a position to cultivate the right kind of ties with the Italian cities and through this create the conditions for economic and cultural links to survive.
Tommaso di Cristofano Fini
known as Masolino da Panicale
(Panicale in Valdelsa 1383/1384-1440)
Saint Julian, 1423-1425 ca.
painting on panel; 115 x 54 cm
Florence, Museo Diocesano di Santo Stefano al Ponte
The panel, portraying the elegant figure of Saint Julian dressed as a knight, was part of a triptych commissioned between 1423 and 1425 by the affluent Carnesecchi family for the chapel situated in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence.The triptych showed in the centre the Madonna and Child and at the sides a Saint Catherine (after whom the chapel was named) and this Saint Julian; it must then have been completed by a predella illustrating scenes from the lives of the two saints. The Carnesecchi chapel, frescoed by Paolo Uccello and enhanced by this large triptych on golden background that Vasari mentions as a work of collaboration between Masolino and Masaccio , represented a precious encapsulation of the work of various outstanding artistic figures of the Florentine culture of the early Renaissance. Since the chapel was demolished in 1650, and the Carnesecchi triptych was dismembered and dispersed between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, the panel showing Saint Julian is the only certain evidence that remains of this exceptional complex. Some critics have identified the portrayal of the parricide committed by the young knight Julian on the instigation of the devil, and his subsequent repentance followed by a life of expiation, as one of the sections of the predella that was originally part of the triptych, but this conjecture is effectively subject to considerable debate. These episodes are synthetically illustrated in two small panels which have been alternatively identified by the critics as belonging to the Carnesecchi triptych: the panel attributed to Masolino conserved in the Musée Ingres in Montauban and the panel attributed to Masaccio in the Museo Horne in Florence. The dating of the Carnesecchi triptych is placed by certain critics around 1424-1425, undoubtedly a very particular period in the career of Masolino, since it marked the start of the execution of the frescoes in the Brancacci chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, in collaboration with Masaccio, and then, on 1 September 1425, his departure for Hungary in the retinue of Pippo Spano, a Florentine merchant who had risen to the rank of military commander under the Emperor Sigismund. Therefore the Saint Julian, with its isolated figure set upon a gold background, comprises the cultural, stylistic and even sentimental elements that Masolino brought with him to the distant land of Hungary. The figure of the saint has a corporeal solidity that certainly derives from Masaccio, while at the same time his elusive three-quarters pose, the abstraction of the gold background, and above all the melancholy that animates the facial expression and the head just slightly tilted towards the shoulder, give a strong psychological connotation to the personality of the knight who killed his father at the instigation of the devil and by mistake. Furthermore, these characterising elements evoke the essence of the courtly spirit and manners of the International Gothic, by now in decline.
Florentine manufacture
Token of the Florentine mercantile company Di Gentile
XIV century, first half
bronze; diam. 20 mm
Inscription: O: crossed keys facing outwards, bound below by a thong within a border of dots; around 26
bezants R: circle with symbol of the Di Gentile mercantile house operating in Genoa and Siena, surmounted by a cross; around 26 bezants
Grassina (Florence), Collezione Alberto Bruschi
The function of trading tokens, still under discussion due to the lack of documentation proving their specific use, was as proof of identity when collecting goods or as acknowledgement of the payment of tolls. It was mainly the big Florentine mercantile companies that commissioned these objects. One side of the token would bear the symbols of the companies, at times in pairs, while the other would show the symbol of the agent representing the company in locations away from the main headquarters. It is difficult to give the tokens a precise date, because it depends on when the company was formed and how long it lasted. However, it is possible to establish a certain hierarchy because the symbols on the faces of the token illustrate the evolution of the company structure. At the outset, when the company was formed of members of the same family alone, the symbols were the same on both sides, then, when there was so much business that the corpo, or capital, of the company (the sum of the monies paid by each partner) no longer sufficed, capital was also accepted from people outside the family unit. At that point, one side of the token depicted the company symbol, and the other the emblems of the various partners. First issued in Tuscany in the second half of the thirteenth century, over the next two centuries they became widespread in northern Italy, France and the Netherlands, becoming an authentic fashion that was taken up by guilds, corporations and confraternities. The token presented here belongs to the Di Gentile mercantile company of Florence, since we can see its trading symbol, the crossed keys, on the obverse. This was the specific symbol of Gherardo, which he also used on the florins struck in the second half of 1316 when he was Master of the mint for gold. The reverse of the token portrays the emblem of a branch of the family that worked in Genoa and Siena, above all in the silk industry and trade.
Florentine workshop
Document box belonging to the Cavalcanti family
XV century, third or last quarter
wood, boiled and carved leather, iron and bronze; 15 x 51.4 x 29.2 cm
Cerreto Guidi (Florence), Museo Storico della Caccia e del Territorio
The piece under examination here only came to our attention recently, but it is one of the largest objects made using this technique and these materials. Designed to house a codex or perhaps a missal, or rather an accounts or remembrance book, as the existence of a separate compartment for writing tools would seem to suggest, it also carries the inscription "VIRTUS/VIVET/IN ETERNUM IN D[EO]" (sic) on the front part of the lid. The ornamentation is rather complex and includes candelabrum motifs with cherubs' heads that could well relate to a religious context, while in the central svecchiatura of the lid, as well as the vegetable scrolls that include eight- petal buttoned flowers, at the bottom we can see two Cupids. The 'horse head' shields show a seeding of crosslets. The choice to use the relief technique on the leather after it had been dipped in wax and carved when the wax had hardened, is in line with what was done for various types of cases, from knife sheaths to containers of documents, patent letters of nobility, important judicial acts and scientific instruments. In the fourteenth century, the technique was even used for defensive armour, especially for protection of the limbs, in hot areas such as southern Italy, as testified to by a large number of Angevin tombstones. Objects of this kind cannot have been rare, but their protective function, which they obviously performed well, meant that numbers gradually fell and today they can be considered totally exceptional. In this particular case, the excellent quality of the work shows the skills of the craftsmen working in Florence in this sector and the widespread use of the new Humanist motifs also on everyday goods. At the same time, some traditionally Gothic forms were still alive, as can be seen here on the metallic parts, proving the age of the piece that in all probability, should be placed between 1480 and 1490.
Florentine manufacture
Patterned velvet
XV century, 1470-1480 ca.
patterned cut and lancé velvet; silk; painted cloth; linen; 125.5 x 60 cm
Prato, Museo del Tessuto, Collezione Bertini
The fabric features a complete module. The decorative motif is made up of a long undulating trunk with a rope- like twist running along the centre and terminating in an ogival leaf with a thistle flower inscribed within, with twelve inflorescences edging the leaf itself. The module of the velvet features a central and axial design which develops from a polylobate leaf, with the pomegranate motif in the centre. The fabric belongs to the type of velvets known as a griccia which is present and documented in numerous variants in Florentine textile production. Although historians have adopted the name a griccia with reference to the design, it actually refers to the assembly of the loom. The popularity enjoyed by this design relates to factors which, in the case of vestments and ecclesiastical accoutrements, go beyond economic motives or social prestige, engaging the symbolic and liturgical dimension. The red lymph which traverses the trunk refers to the themes of martyrdom and the blood of Christ, whose sacrifice passes through human suffering, represented by the branches which come together in a single cardinal element, the fruit of which is the pomegranate, symbol of eternal life and rebirth.
Florentine manufacture
Patterned velvet
XV century, last quarter
pile on pile velvet, bouclé brocaded; silk, frisé and filé gold thread; 60 x 29.5 cm
Prato, Museo del Tessuto, Collezione Bertini
Despite its fragmentary state, this fabric allows us to arrive at the width of the original piece, which coincides with the Florentine braccio (ca. 58 cm), a substantial element for the identification of the manufacture, together with the presence of a complete selvedge, the technical and chromatic characteristics of which can, through comparison with other artefacts, be assigned to the same ambit. The design is arranged in line with a central and axial symmetry. The module comprises a rounded mesh encircled by leaves with denticular borders, while in the centre is a thistle flower set within a polylobate leaf. The thistle flower develops from a foliate knot which extends, lower down, into a long trunk, branching off of which are two shoots terminating in polylobate leaves, with a stylised pomegranate in the centre. The complexity of the design is emphasised by the use of sophisticated textile techniques: the pile on pile velvet, featuring pile cut at different lengths to create chiaroscuro effects, the weft of gold thread that traverses the yellow woof of the background and finally the use of bouclé brocade to embellish various areas of the design. The fragment on display illustrates the precious and elaborate workmanship of this type of velvet which characterised the production of the Florentine textile manufacture in the Renaissance period, as can be observed in the numerous contemporary paintings by Italian and Flemish artists.
Iohannes Damascenus known as Saint Johannes Damescenus : Sententiae
(Damasco 676 ca.-Laura di San Saba 749 ca.)
Anselmus Cantuariensis known asSaint Anselmo d'Aosta or St. Anselmo di Canterbury: Opera
(Aosta1033/1034-Canterbury 1109)
parchment, ink, tempera, gold, silver; ff. 292; 351 x 238 mm; humanistica textualis formata
Florence, Attavante degli Attavanti's workshop, 1485-1490; binding: Buda, end of the 1480s
Russet brown leather binding mounted on wooden boards, with blind stamping, gilding and cutting out in the leather; four double ribs on the spine; punched gold engraving;
Budapest, National Széchényi Library
The manuscript copied and illuminated in Florence upon King Matthias Corvinus' commission contains theological works. The first is the Latin translation by Burgundio Pisano († 1193) of the third part of Saint John of Damascus' chef-d'oeuvre († 750 ca.), The Fountain of Knowledge ( Pégé gnóseós) followed by works of Saint Anselm of Canterbury ( Monologion, Proslogion, Cur Deus homo, De processione Spiritus Sancti, De asymo et fermentato, De conceptu virginali et de originali peccato, De sacramentis Ecclesiae) including his disciple and biographer Eadmer's De voluntate triplici seu de similitudinibus) surviving under Anselm's name. The double title-page follows a solution often used in Attavante's workshop. On the left side of the opened leaf, the contents of the volume are written in a large round medallion. The longitudinal sections of the broad illuminated border around the text area on the opposite page are divided into smaller triangular and rhomboidal fields by lopped golden branches. In addition to the emblems in blue fields (beehive, barrel, steel and flint, diamond ring, dragon) the heraldic animal of the Hunyadi family, the raven, appears four times. Below two winged putti hold the frame with the escutcheon in the middle showing an azure double cross on gules ground. This is an overpainting hiding king Matthias' quartered coat of arms, which has a clearly visible imprint on the opposite side. Not only the double title-page, but also several inner leaves of the codex are illuminated. There are no more figural initials, but each book of Sententiae, and each work by Saint Anselm are marked by larger initials with filigree decoration and shorter marginal ornaments. The manuscript retains its original gilded corvina binding produced in Buda around the late 1480s. It belongs to a rarer type. The layout is not like those with an accentuated centrepiece but resembles the ones that have a centrepiece composed of five circles. The circles, however, are not side by side. The escutcheon is not in the centre, either, but above the large circle, in the middle. As was customary with the Latin Corvinus codices, the
inscription was put on the back board.
Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla known as Andrea del Castagno
(Castagno 1421 ca.-Firenze 1457)
Pippo Spano, 1450 ca.
fresco, detached and transferred to canvas
250 x 154 cm
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
In the villa belonging to the Carducci family inLegnaia, a village close to Florence, we can see a "beautiful … [room by the hand of Andreino, with sibyls and famous Florentine men", as recorded by Albertini in his Memoriale as far back as 1510. The frescoes, barely mentioned by Vasari but described in detail by the nineteenth century commentator, Gaetano Milanesi, were discovered in 1847. They were arranged in a reconstruction of the whole perspective of the wall section, thanks also to the donation of fragments of the frieze, detached in 1907 and 1910, by the then owner of the villa, Cesare D'Ancona. In the loggia, the row of nine figures - three Florentine men-at-arms (Pippo Spano, Farinata degli Uberti and Niccolň Acciaioli), three famous women (the Cumaean Sibyl, Esther and Tomiri) and three writers (Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio) were separated by an elaborate decoration of Corinthian style above a fake marble plinth. Considerable remnants of the frescoes of one of the shorter sides were discovered in 1948-1949: a Madonna and Child flanked by the figures of Adam and Eve, while, according to the documents, on the opposite side was a Crucifixion with Saint Jerome and Our Lady. Apart from the three female figures, who can be interpreted through the moral virtues attributed to them (the Cumaean Sibyl had predicted the advent of Christ, and the two Queens, Esther and Tomiri, had acted for the good of their people), the iconographic programme was designed to underscore the political and literary glory of Florence. There are no Greek or Roman heroes in the frescoes of the Carducci villa, and the references are to the protagonists of later Florentine history. Pippo Spano was born Filippo Scolari in 1369, in Tizzano close to Florence, and died near Buda on 27 December 1426. His dazzling rise to power, initially in the service of the Primate of Hungary, Cardinal Demetrio Szecky († 1387) and then in that of Sigismund, King of Bohemia (1361-1437), who appointed him as chief of his army, was the result of his incredible skill as a military strategist. He was also responsible for major improvements in the fortifications in the south of the country, where his exceptional capacity for mathematical calculations certainly stood him in good stead, as well as for a series of victories in the field, principally against the Turks between 1417 and 1425. Lord of Oroza, supreme Count of Timisoara (1407), administrator of the gold mines of the State and Knight of the Golden Spur of the Order of the Dragon, he exerted a great influence on the imagination of the Florentines, and in particular on Filippo Carducci, one of the most prominent politicians of the time. The cycle is dated to 1450, or shortly afterwards, in view of stylistic and documentary considerations; the gonfalonier Filippo Carducci, who must have commissioned the frescoes, died in July 1449, and in 1451, his sons sold the villa to relatives.