A Palette For Prayer

Matthew Dennsion is enlightened by this exploration of the medieval use of colour as an adjunct to devotion.

- Matthew Dennsion

IN the opening years of the 15th century, Cardinal Angelo Acciaiuoli, a Florentine nobleman and Chancellor of the Holy See, made payments equivalent to £30,000 to four artists. Between them, Bartolomeo di Fruosino, brothers Matteo and Bartolomeo di Filippo Torelli and Bastiano di Niccolò di Monte produced for the Cardinal a handsomely illuminated missal. It is decorated with elaborate initials and, on each leaf, his own portrait in scarlet robes and his coat of arms supported by angels. The text is framed by borders made up of mythical animals, portraits, putti, plants and flowers.

Despite being mostly resident in Rome, Acciaiuoli was an important patron of artists in his native Florence. In commissioning his missal, he looked beyond the city’s religious communities. Bartolomeo di Fruosino had trained in the atelier of fresco and panel painter Agnolo Gaddi; Bastiano di Niccolò’s career as a painter spanned half a century.

From its inception, the Cardinal’s missal was both a devotional work and a work of art entrusted to professional artists. Like many items in the Fitzwilliam’s bicentenary exhibition, it challenges popular preconceptions concerning illuminated manuscripts, namely thatsuch works were produced exclusively within monastic communities.