Detail Folio 1R. Coat of arms of King Alfonso V of Aragon, Naples and Sicily
First Surrealist: Giovanni di Paolo
One of the most important 15th-century painters of the Sienese school, outstanding in the International Gothic style.
The works of this brilliant artist are exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world: Louvre, Vatican Museums, Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Metropolitan Museum in NY, National Gallery in London, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Art Institute of Chicago and others.
Giovanni di Paolo created the magnificent images of Paradise for this manuscript by Dante.
Pisanello, author of the portrait of Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples
Dante’s most notable manuscript is the one made for King Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples. Two artists were involved. The first, after a comparison with a fresco in the Siena hospital dated 1442, can be identified as Lorenzo di Pietro, known as Il Vecchieta.
He was an Italian painter, sculptor and goldsmith. Between about 1442 and 1450 he created particularly brightly coloured miniatures, which he may have developed under the influence of the well-known early Renaissance painter Domenico Veneziano. His works are exhibited in the most important museums in the world.
The second artist was Giovanni di Paolo, active in Siena until his death in 1482, who produced the magnificent miniatures of the third book, Paradise. In an image of the ninth canto, we see the city of Florence. As the three exedras designed by Filippo Brunelleschi for the cathedral, completed in 1444, are not yet visible, nor is the lantern dome begun by this famous architect in 1446, this part of the manuscript must have been conceived in the early 1440s.
