Florence, Biblioteca Medicaa Laurenziana, Corale 1, f. 111v: Pinksteren, de uitstorting van de Heilige Geest door Lorenzo Monaco
Lorenzo Monaco
Italiaans boekverluchter, paneelschilder, tekenaar en frescoschilder, werkzaam in Florence en tijdgenoot van Bartolomeo di Fruosino met wie hij veelvuldig samenwerkte.
Lorenzo Monaco was de dominante artistieke persoonlijkheid in Florence gedurende het 1e kwart van de 15e eeuw. Lorenzo Monaco werd geboren ca 1367-1370, wellicht in Siena. In 1390 trad hij toe tot het klooster van Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, ter gelegenheid waarvan hij zijn doopnaam Piero di Giovanni wijzigde in Lorenzo Monaco. Waarschijnlijk overleed hij in 1423 of 1424. Aangenomen wordt dat Lorenzo Monaco het vak van boekverluchter leerde in het scriptorium van de Santa Maria degli Angeli onder de leiding van Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci.
Wellicht werkte Lorenzo Monaco ook korte tijd in de werkplaats van Don Simone Camaldolese, met wiens werk zijn verluchtingen veel overeenkomsten vertonen. Dat de beïnvloeding hierbij wederzijds was blijkt uit een tweetal aan Camaldolese toe te schrijven boeken (Columbia University X264Sa5Q en Museo Civico 539), waarvan de marge-decoratie is uitgevoerd in een techniek gelijk aan die van Monaco.
Lorenzo Monaco verluchtte met name koorboeken, antifonaren en gradualen voor zijn klooster alsmede voor de kerk van het Santa Maria Nuova. Onder de invloed van de terugkeer van Gherado Starnia naar Florence verliest het werk van Lorenzo Monaco na 1403 haar afstandelijke, kunstmatige plechtigheid, en worden zijn personages meer elegant en geraffineerd weergegeven volgens de dan geldende stijl van de Internationale Gotiek.
Naast boekverluchter was Lorenzo Monaco vooral bekend als schilder van panelen en fresco’s. Zijn meesterwerk in dit opzicht en tevens een van de hoogtepunten van de Florentijnse schilderkunst is de door hem gesigneerde Kroning van de Maagd, een altaarstuk uit 1414 (Uffizi, Florence). Hierin vinden we alle kwaliteiten terug die Monaco tot de belangrijkste Florentijnse schilder van het 1e kwart van de 15e eeuw maakten.
Berlijn, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett
Min 1240 Los blad met Christus in glorie in initiaal “O”
Vasari schrijft als volgt over deze artiest in zijn Le vite (Engelse vertaling door Gaston C. DeVere, 1912/1915, vol. 2, p. 55-58): For a good and religious person, I believe, there must be great contentment in having ready to his hand some honourable exercise, whether that of letters, or of music, or of painting, of of any other liberal or mechanical arts, such as are not blameworthy, but rather useful and helpful to other men; for the reason that after the divine offices the time passes honourably with the delight that is taken in the sweet labours of these pleasant exercises. And to this it may be added that not only is he esteemed and held in price by others the while that he lives, provided that they be not envious and malign, but that he is also honoured after death by all men, by reason of his works and of the good name that he leaves to those who survive him. And in truth one he who spends his time in this manner, lives in quiet contemplation and without being molested by those ambitious desires which are almost always seen, to their shame and loss, in the idle and unoccupied, who are for the most part ignorant. And even if it comes about that our virtuous man is sometimes smitten by the malign, so powerful is the force of virtue that time covers up and buries the malice of the wicked, and the virtuous man, throughout the ages that follow, remains ever famous and illustrious. Don Lorenzo, then, a painter of Florence, was a monk of the Order of Camaldoli in the Monastery of the Angeli, which monastery was founded in the year 1294 by Fra Guittone d’Arezzo, of the Militant Order of the Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ, or rather, as the monks of that Order were vulgarly called, of the Joyous Friars; and he applied himself in his earliest years to design and to painting with so great zeal, that he was afterwards deservedly numbered among the best of the age in that exercise. The first worlds of this painter-monk, who held to the manner of Taddeo Gaddi and his disciples, were in his Monastery of the Angeli, where, among many other things, he painted the panel of the high-altar, which is still seen to-day in their church, and which was completely finished, as it may be seen from letters written below on the ornament, in the year 1413, when it was set in place. On a panel, likewise, which was in the Monastery of San Benedetto, of the same Order of Camaldoli, which was outside the Porta a Pinto and was destroyed in 1529, in the siege of Florence, Don Lorenzo painted a Coronation of Our Lady, even as he had also done in the panel for his own Church of the Angeli; and this panel, painted for San Benedetto, is to-day in the first cloister of the said Monastery of the Angeli, in the Chapel of the Alberti, on the right hand. About the same time, or perchance before, in Santa Trinita at Florence, he painted in fresco the Chapel of the Ardinghelli, with its panel, which was much praised at the time; and there he made from nature the portraits of Dante and of Petrarca. In San Piero Maggiore he painted the Chapel of the Fioravanti, and the panel in a chapel in San Piero Scheraggio; and in the said church of Santa Trinita he painted the Chapel of the Bartolini. In San Jacopo Sopra Arno, also, there is seen a panel by his hand, very well wrought and executed with infinite diligence according to the manner of those times. In the Certosa without Florence, likewise, he painted some pictures with good mastery; and in San Michele in Pisa, a monastery of his Order, he painted some panels that are passing good. And in Florence, in the Church of the Romiti [Church of the Hermits] (also belonging to the Order of the Camaldoli), which, being in ruins together with the monastery, has to-day left no memory but the name to that quarter on the other side of the Arno, which is called Camaldoli from the name of that holy place, among other works, he painted a Crucifix on panel, with a St. John, which were held very beautiful. Finally, falling sick of a cruel imposthume, which kept him suffering for many months, he died at the age of fifty-five, and was honourably buried by his fellow-monks, as his virtues deserved, in the chapter-house of their monastery. And because it often happens, as experience shows, that from one single germ, with time and by means of the study and intelligence of men, there spring up many, in the said Monastery of the Angeli, where in former times the monks ever applied themselves to painting and to design, not only was the said Don Lorenzo excellent among them, but many men excellent in the matters of design also flourished there for a long space of time, both before and after him. Wherefore it appears to me by no means right to pass over in silence one Don Jacopo, a Florentine, who lived long before the said Don Lorenzo, for the reason that, even as he was a very good and very worthy monk, so was he a better writer of large letters than any who lived either before or after him, not only in Tuscany, but in all Europe, as it is clearly proved not only by the twenty very large volumes of choral books that he left in his monastery, which are the most beautiful, as regards the writing, as well as the largest that there are perchance in Italy, but also by a infinity of others which are to be found in Rome, in Venice, and in many other places, and above all in San Michele and in San Mattia di Murano, a monastery of his Order of Camaldoli; for which works this good father well deserved, many years after he had passed to a better life, not only that Don Paolo Orlandini, a very learned monk of the same monastery, should celebrate him with many Latin verses, but that his right hand, wherewith he wrote the said books, should be preserved with much veneration in a shrine, as it still is, together with that of another monk called Don Silvestro, who, according to the standard of those times, illuminated the said books no less excellently than Don Jacopo had written them. And I, who have seen the many times, remain in a marvel that they were executed with so much design and with so much diligence in those times, when the arts of design were little less than lost; for the works of these monks date about the year of our salvation 1350, more or less, as it may be seen in each of the said books. It is said, and some old men still remember it, that when Pope Leo X came to Florence he wished to see the said books and examine them carefully, remembering that he had heard them much praised to Lorenzo de’Medici the Magnificent, his father; and that after he had looked at them with attention and admiration, as they all lay open on the desks of the choir, he said, “If they were according to the Roman Church, and not, as they are, according to the monastic use and ordering of Camaldoli, we would be pleased to take some volumes of them for San Pietro in Rome, giving just recompense to the monks”; in which church there were formerly, and perhaps there still are, two others of them by the hand of the same monks, both very beautiful. In the same Monastery of the Angeli there are many ancient embroideries, wrought with very beautiful manner and with much design by the ancient fathers of that place, while they were living in perpetual enclosure under the name not of monks but of hermits, without ever issuing from the monastery, in such wise as do the sisters and nuns of our own day; which enclosure lasted until the year 1470. But to return to Don Lorenzo; he taught Francesco Fiorentino, who, after his death, painted the shrine that is on the Canto di Santa Maria Novella, at the head of the Via della Scala, on the way to the Scala del Papa; and he taught another disciple, a Pisan, who painted a Madonna, St. Peter, St. John the Baptist, St. Francis, and St. Ranieri, and three scenes with little figures on the predella of the altar, in the Church of San Francesco at Pisa, in the Chapel of Rutilio di Ser Baccio Maggiolini; and this work, painted in 1315, was held passing good for something wrought in distemper. In my book of drawings I have, by the hand of Don Lorenzo, the Theological Virtues done in chiaroscuro with good design and beautiful and graceful manner, insomuch that they are peradventure better than the drawings of any other master whatsoever of those times. A passing good painter in the time of Don Lorenzo was Antonio Vite of Pistoia, who besides may other works–as it has been said in the Life of Starnina–painted, in the Palace of the Ceppo at Prato, the life of Francesco di Marco, Founder of that holy place.
Catalogus
Aken, Suermondt-Ludwig Museum
Los blad met een profeet in initiaal “T”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 13 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 231
Berlijn, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett
Min 1231 Los blad met Koning David (?) in initiaal “S”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 1 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, Florence, ca 1401-1402 (4 andere fragmenten in Berlijn, Staatliche Museen, Ms Min 1240; Londen, British Library, Ms add 74233B; Parijs, Bibliothèque Nationale Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Rf 830; Vaticaan Stad, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Ross. Ms 1192.2)
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 29b
Min 1232 Los blad met St. Paulus in initiaal “E”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 13 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 231
Min 1239 Los blad met Johannes de Doper in initiaal “F”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 8 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. nr. 30a
Min 1240 Los blad met Christus in glorie in initiaal “O”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 1 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, Florence, ca 1401-1402 (4 andere fragmenten in Berlijn, Staatliche Museen, Ms Min 1231; Londen, British Library, Ms add 74233B; Parijs, Bibliothèque Nationale Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Rf 830; Vaticaan Stad, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Ross. Ms 1192.2)
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 29c
Min 4592 Los blad met St. Gregorius de Grote in initiaal “M”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 13 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 232
Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art
49.536 los blad met profeet in initiaal D, afkomstig uit codex h 74 in de Santa Maria Nuova te Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 38b
Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts
1474 Los blad met Christus als Man van Smarten met de Heilige Maagd en Johannes de Evangelist, afkomstig uit codex Corale 7 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 265
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
CORALE 1, Florence, ca 1401-1402 (5 fragmenten in Berlijn, Staatliche Museen, Ms Min 1231 en 1240; Londen, British Library, Ms add 74233B; Parijs, Bibliothèque Nationale Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Rf 830; Vaticaan Stad, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Ross. Ms 1192.2)
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 235-237
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, CORALE 1, f. 63r
CORALE 3 graduaal, verluchting door Zanobi Strozzi, o.a. f. 15v; Niccolo Rosselli; Lorenzo Monaco; Matteo Torelli; Bartolomeo di Fruosino
literatuur:
- Italian Libraries 1997, p. 128-9
CORALE 5
CORALE 7
CORALE 8
CORALE 13
CORALE 18
Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello
Cod c 71
Florence, Santa Maria Nuova
Cod h 74
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 287-293
Kopenhagen, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Departement of Prints ad Drawings
TU 3.52 Los blad met tekening van Judas die de dertig zilverlingen ontvangt, samen met TU 3.53 en 54 en de 3 tekeningen in Vaticaanstad wellicht onderdeel van het ontbrekende volume 2 van CORALE 18 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 36d
TU 3.53 Los blad met tekening van het Wonder van de Broden en de Vissen in een initiaal L, samen met TU 3.52 en 54 en de 3 tekeningen in Vaticaanstad wellicht onderdeel van het ontbrekende volume 2 van CORALE 18 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 36a
TU 3.54 Los blad met tekening van Christus die de voeten van de Apostelen wast in een initiaal D, samen met TU 3.52 en 53 en de 3 tekeningen in Vaticaanstad wellicht onderdeel van het ontbrekende volume 2 van CORALE 18 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 36f
Londen, British Library
Ms add 74233B fragment uit antifonarium, afkomstig uit f. 146r van Cod Corale 1 in Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, ca 1401-1402 (4 andere fragmenten in Paris, Musée du Louvre, Ms RF 830; Berlijn, Staatliche Museen, Ms Min 1231 en 1240; Vaticaan Stad, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Ross. Ms 1192.2)
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 174, 235, 236, fig. 93
Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum
ms 78 Los blad met gehistorieerde initiaal “V” met de Hemelvaart, ontworpen door Lorenzo Monaco, voltooid door Zanobi di Benedetto Strozzi en Battista di Biagio Sanguini, afkomstig uit codex Corale 3 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- Voelkle & Wieck 1992, nr. 74
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 37
- Palladino 2003, nr. 79
Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum, ms 78 Los blad met gehistorieerde initiaal “V” met de Hemelvaart
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection
1975.1.2485 Los blad met het Laatste Oordeel in initiaal “C”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 7 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 33
- Hindman, Levi d’Ancona, Palladino & Saffiotti 1997, nr. 21
Parijs, Bibliothèque Nationale Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins
Rf 830 Los blad met de drie Maria’s bij het Graf in initiaal “A”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 1 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, Florence, ca 1401-1402 (4 andere fragmenten in Berlijn, Staatliche Museen, Ms Min 1231 en 1240; Londen, British Library, Ms add 74233B; Vaticaan Stad, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Ross. Ms 1192.2)
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 29a
Parijs, Bibliothèque Nationale Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Rf 830 Los blad met de drie Maria’s bij het Graf in initiaal “A”
Parijs, Musée Marmottan, Wildenstein Collection
M 6015 los blad met Genadestoel in initiaal B, afkomstig uit codex h 74 in de Santa Maria Nuova te Florence, Florence, ca 1410-1414 verluchting door Lorenzo Monaco en Bartolomeo di Fruosino: de jeugdige gezichten in de randen
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 290
- Le Gendre 2010, p. 18-19
Privécollectie
Los blad met Jozef in initiaal “V”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 13 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, p. 231
Vaticaanstad, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Cod. Rossiano 1192.2 Los blad met Pinksteren in initiaal “D”, afkomstig uit codex Corale 1 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, Florence, ca 1401-1402 (4 andere fragmenten in Berlijn, Staatliche Museen, Ms Min 1231 en 1240; Londen, British Library, Ms add 74233B; Parijs, Bibliothèque Nationale Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Rf 830)
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 29d
Cod. Rossiano 1192.35 Los blad met tekening van de Intocht in Jeruzalem, samen de tekeningen 35 en 37 en de 3 tekeningen in Kopenhagen wellicht onderdeel van het ontbrekende volume 2 van CORALE 18 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 36b
Cod. Rossiano 1192.35 Los blad met tekening van het Laatste Avondmaal, samen de tekeningen 34 en 37 en de 3 tekeningen in Kopenhagen wellicht onderdeel van het ontbrekende volume 2 van CORALE 18 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 36e
Cod. Rossiano 1192.37 Los blad met tekening van het Christus in het huis van Maria en Martha, samen de tekeningen 34 en 35 en de 3 tekeningen in Kopenhagen wellicht onderdeel van het ontbrekende volume 2 van CORALE 18 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 36c
Washington, National Gallery of Art
Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.277 los blad met profeet in initiaal E, afkomstig uit codex h 74 in de Santa Maria Nuova te Florence
literatuur:
- Nordenfalk 1975, p. 44-46
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 38a
Rosenwald Collection 1958.8.105 Los blad met Christus die de sleutel overhandigt aan Petrus in initiaal “S”, afkomstig uit codex Coreale 8 in de Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
literatuur:
- New York 1994-1995, nr. 30b
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.277 los blad met profeet in initiaal E
Literatuur
- Salmi 1955, p. 26, 27
- Boskovits 1975
- Nordenfalk 1975, p. 44-46
- Levi D’Ancona 1978
- Eisenberg 1989
- Voelkle & Wieck 1992, nr. 74
- New York 1994-1995, p. 220-306, nrs. 27-41
- Christie’s catalogus 29 juni 1994, nr. 15
- Italian Libraries 1997, p. 128-129
- Hindman, Levi d’Ancona, Palladino & Saffiotti 1997, p. 162-164, nr. 21
- Palladino 2003, nr. 79
Bradley 1887-1889 –
Thieme-Becker 1907-1950,
D’Ancona & Aeschlimann 1949, p. 133-134
