Commissione issued to Paolo Nani by Leonardo Loredan

Commissione issued to Paolo Nani by Leonardo Loredan

Like the previous item, this manuscript is an elaborately decorated commissione issued during the dogeship of Leonardo Loredan (1501–17). It was issued to Paolo Nani and designates him as podestà and capitaneus of the important inland town of Treviso. The frontispiece features an elaborate frame of all’antica ornamentation, while the central image shows Saint Paul presenting a kneeling Nani to the enthroned Virgin and Child, a simplified version of large-scale compositions by contemporary Venetian painters. It is likely the work of the illuminator and cartographer Benedetto Bordone (1450–1530). Not only was Bordone a master illuminator of Venetian commissioni in the early the sixteenth century, he also likely designed woodcuts for Francesco Colonna and Aldus Manutius. The vibrant colors of Bordone’s frontispiece bear witness to the high-quality pigments available to artists working in Venice, the European hub for the trade of paintstuffs at the turn of the sixteenth century.

Author: Leonardo Loredan; Illuminator: Benedetto Bordone

1517

Manuscript on parchment, 34 fols.

University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, LJS 59

Venice, Italy