GIOVANNI, illuminator, born in 1460, was a pupil of Zanobi di Lorenzo. His work was highly esteemed, and he received numerous commissions even outside Florence. Among his most important works are the many codices he illuminated between 1509 and 1523 for Montecassino. At the same time, he executed miniatures for the Opera del Duomo of Florence (1511–18), for the church of S. Lorenzo (1514), for S. Spirito, for the Badia Fiorentina, for S. Pietro of Perugia (1518), and for the Opera del Duomo of Siena (1519). His most refined works are those of the three volumes of the Pandects (1526, Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze).
Boccardi, even in his later works, remained a quattrocento artist; yet in contrast to the current taste diffused by Attavante (v.), he displayed originality in his treatment of ornamentation and friezes, in which motifs inspired by plant life and gilded backgrounds lightened the compositions. The figures, however, are stiff and conventional. The son of Boccardi, FRANCESCO (d. 1547), collaborated with him and also illuminated, together with Angelo da Terranuova, four choir books for S. Pietro of Perugia (1528).
Francesco’s importance lies in his attempt to align with 16th-century art through an amplification of forms, the search for spatial depth in architectural backgrounds, and chiaroscuro contrasts.