CRIVELLI, TADDEO. — Miniaturist and painter also known as Taddeo da Ferrara, b. between 1420 and 1430 (it is uncertain whether in Mantua or Milan), d. between 1476 and 1485. In 1451 he was in Ferrara, where, among other works, he executed the famous Borso d’Este Bible (Modena, Biblioteca Estense), completed between 1455 and 1461, with the collaboration of other miniaturists such as Franco de’ Russi, Giorgio d’Alemagna, and Marco dell’Avogaro (see BIBLE). After the death of Borso, his patron, he lived in straitened circumstances in Bologna, executing the Choir Books for S. Procolo and beginning those for S. Petronio, which were completed by Martino da Modena.
Also attributed to him are: the Decameron in the library of Lord Leicester at Holkham and the Treatise of St. Augustine on the Gospel of St. John in the Malatestiana Library in Cesena.
A consummate artist, he enriched his initial Lombard training with Venetian, Pierfrancescan, and Florentine elements, blending late Gothic decorative richness with Renaissance measure and clarity.