Boccardi, Giovanni and Francesco, Florentines

BOCCARDI, Giovanni and Francesco, Florentines. - GIOVANNI, illuminator, b. in 1460, was a pupil of Zanobi di Lorenzo. His work was highly esteemed and numerous commissions came to him even outside Florence. Among the most important 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), for the Opera del Duomo of Siena (1519). His most refined works are those of the 3 vols. of the Pandette (1526, Bibl. Naz. of Florence). Even in his late works B. remained a Quattrocento artist; but in comparison with the prevailing taste disseminated by Attavante (v.), he had an originality of his own through the new treatment of ornaments and friezes, in which motifs inspired by plant life and gilded grounds lighten the compositions. The figures, on the other hand, are clumsy and conventional. A collaborator of B. was his son FRANCESCO (d. in 1547), who also illuminated, with Angelo da Terranova, four choir books for S. Pietro of Perugia (1528). Francesco's importance lies in his having attempted to adhere to the art of the 16th century by means of an amplification of forms, a search for spatial depth in architectural grounds, and contrasts of chiaroscuro.

Elsa Gerlini