Bartolomeo Ghetti - Work As Manuscript Illuminator in France

Work As Manuscript Illuminator in France

In 1894 Durrieu and Marquet de Vasselot speculatively identified “Barthélemy Guéty” (whom they believed to have been French) as the possible illuminator of three illuminated manuscripts, two of which were made for François I or his mother, Louise of Savoy. The volumes are: Ovid’s Heroïdes in the French translation of Octavien de Saint-Gelais (Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek − Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Ms. O.65), a manuscript whose provenance is unknown; an Oraisons de Cicéro en françois produced for François I (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Ms. fr. 1738); and the Faicts et gestes de la Royne Blanche d’Espagne written and illuminated for Louise (Bibl. Nat., Ms. fr. 5715). The Cicero contains one sole miniature depicting François I at the Battle of Marignano and the Faicts et gestes includes a single illumination which depicts Louise of Savoy in the guise of Blanche of Castille enthroned and accompanied by an invalid (possibly symbolizing the misfortune of the state after enduring the death of the king). The Dresden Ovid, however, is richly illustrated. Its rich and ornate illuminations possess an undeniably Italianate flavor, particularly in their deeply receding landscapes and ornate all’antica architecture. The courtly and elegant ladies depicted in the miniatures, with their oval faces, high foreheads, and elaborate hairstyles bear a distinct affinity to the female figures in Ghetti’s panel paintings. There is a remarkable similarity in the way in which figures tend to be reduced to geometric solids, which are carefully modeled with light and shadow. The female figures tend toward the sturdy, and the hands share something of the same angularity found in Ghetti's work on panel. Such suggestive visual comparisons as these urge that the miniatures in the three manuscripts deserve further investigation as possible works by Ghetti.