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Premium [ENLUMINATION]. [VENICE]. [MARIEGOLA].
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[ENLUMINATION]. [VENICE]. [MARIEGOLA].
See original version (French)
Lot no. 18
[ENLUMINATION]. [VENICE]. [MARIEGOLA].
Leaf extracted from a Mariegola (register of statutory regulations for the members of a guild or confraternity).
Paris Bordone (?), presented by Saint Jerome (?), kneeling in prayer before Christ holding a book and pointing to God the Father.
Four putti in gold monochrome in the outer corners, inscription in Roman capitals: "SANCTA TRINITAS UNUS DEUS MISERERE MEI" in a four-lobed medallion in the lower frame.
Illuminated folio on parchment, tempera and gold leaf.
Attributable to the "Master of T.° Ve. (or "T.° Ve. Master"), active in Venice between 1520 and 1570.
Italy, Venice, circa 1560.
Dimensions: 232 x 160 mm
Unframed folio in good condition, with a few cracks in the pictorial surface. A few small gaps in the parchment at the top and bottom right-hand corners. The reverse is white, with the exception of the inscription at the top (see Provenance below).
A fine example of an illuminated frontispiece of a Mariegola (contraction of "Madre" and "Regola"). The first associations of free workers, such as masters of art, craftsmen and merchants, were formed in Venice around the eleventh century with the aim of protecting the moral and social interests of workers, rather like today's trade unions. The rules governing the rights and duties of members of free associations were set out in a statute known as the "mariegola", from the Latin "matricula" or "mother rule". The statute regulated many aspects of the operation of Venetian businesses, including relations between workers, in particular between owners and apprentices, as well as monitoring fair competition, quality control and a system of mutual aid. It also laid down formal rules on religious, moral, behavioural, political, economic and administrative matters. They were often illuminated and depicted the portrait of the newly enthroned craftsman or merchant. The Mariegole were kept in the archives of the Schools (such as the Scuola Grande di San Rocco or the Scuola Grande di San Marco). The schools, which provided economic, professional and spiritual assistance, were lay confraternities that chose a patron saint. Many schools brought together groups of craftsmen according to their profession, and each school had its own professional register.
The artist who painted this leaf is associated with around forty Dogali and Giuramenti (oaths of office), attributed to the "Maestro T.° Ve." and his Venetian workshop, active between 1520 and 1570. His name comes from a dated note on a Dogale leaf, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Marlay Cutting It. 43: "T.° Ve. dep. 1578", later addition, detached leaf from a commission for Pietro di Bernardino Tagliapietra as Podestà of Vicenza; see Binski and Panayotova, The Cambridge Illuminations, London, 2005, no. 140). A group of works collected for the first time by Giulia Maria Zuccolo Padrono (1971, pp. 53-71) is associated with this artist known as "Maestro T.° Ve". The reference and links with Tiziano Vecellio (Titian) suggested by an overly "optimistic" art dealer have since been rejected, but the name has stuck. Although no direct link with Titian can be established, the style of the "Master T.° Ve." bears witness to the triumph of Mannerism in contemporary Venetian illumination. It is also amusing to note that the Mariegola was intended for Paris Bordon (as suggested by the inscription on the reverse of the painted sheet), who was partly trained in Titian's workshop.
In the second half of the sixteenth century, the patrons of the Dogale, Mariegola and Commissions in general began to ask for more full-page illuminations, which were in fact small independent paintings, ideal spaces in which to represent the patricians. These full-page illuminations and portraits were often cut out of the manuscript and sought after by collectors in the same way as drawings. The present sheet is a fine example of this practice.
Provenance :
1. Illuminated in Venice, according to the style and association with leaves and illuminations attributed to a Venetian painter known as "T.° Ve. Master" (see above). For the illuminators of the Venetian Mariegole, Dogale and Commissions, see Szépe (2018, pp. 69-70) and for the "Maestro T.° Ve.", see Szépe (2018, pp. 136).
2. Inscription in brown ink on the reverse of the sheet: "Mariegola de Paris Bordone. 1560". It is copied from seventeenth-century (or late sixteenth-century?) handwriting. We do not know which guild it refers to, perhaps in connection with his profession as a painter?
3. Paris Bordon (Treviso, 1500-Venice, 1571) was an Italian painter of the Venetian Renaissance trained by Titian. We do not know exactly what the link is between Paris Bordon and Benedetto Bordon (circa 1450-1530), an illuminator and cartographer in Padua and Venice. However, we do know that Benedetto Bordon also painted similar compositions and was largely involved in the illumination of Dogali and Giuramenti, for example a detached leaf from a commission to Vincenzo Donato (1512) (San Marino, Huntington Library, EL 9 H 13,1); see also Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.10.23; Binski and Panayotova, The Cambridge Illuminations, London, 2005, no. 139, commission by Vincenzo Zantani appointed by Doge Andrea Gritti in 1524; or Philadelphia, Free Library, MS Lewis E. 143, commission by Marcantonio di Alvise Contarini (1504).
See Marcon, S: Marcon, S. "Maestro T° Ve.", in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, 2004, p. 712. - Szépe, H.K. Venice Illuminated. Power and Painting in Renaissance Manuscripts, Yale Univeristy Press, 2018. - Zuccolo Padrono, G. M. "Il Maestro 'To. Ve.' e la sua bottega: Miniature Veneziane del XVI° secolo", in Arte Veneta, 25 (1971), pp. 53-71.
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