This week in La Gazette Drouot: Lombardy at the Dawn of the 16th Century: An Illumination Commissioned by a Prestigious Patron

This large-format Italian folio from the early16thcentury, mounted on a copper plate, resembles a small devotional image intended for private worship or diplomatic purposes rather than a frontispiece illumination for a large manuscript. Such freestanding works on vellum are rare in Lombardy, where this one was created. 

A prestigious patron was behind its creation, as several clues suggest: the initials inscribed on the base of the Virgin’s throne suggest the first name“Antonio Maria,” while infrared analysis of the repainting confirms the presence of a coat of arms corresponding to that of the Pallavicini, an important Genoese family linked to the Lombard princely houses through a network of marital alliances. 
 

Antonio Maria Pallavicini(1468–1516) would therefore be the artist in question, as confirmed by the presence of Catherine of Alexandria, the patron saint of his mother, Catherine Fieschi, who belonged to another illustrious Genoese family. Our patron served as a condottiere in the armies of Ludovico Sforza and as a diplomat in the service of the Duchy of Milan. He later switched sides to serve the King of France—first Louis XII, who rewarded him in 1499, and then Francis I. 

In 1516, his final mission was to accompany Leonardo da Vinci to France. Pallavicini never returned, having succumbed to illness in Amboise. Despite his hectic life, he lived during a period well-suited for commissioning this illumination: in the first decade of the16thcentury, while living in Milan, he led a lavish lifestyle and mingled with artists. He undoubtedly took advantage of this opportunity to be immortalized as a patrician of noble lineage, devoted to the Virgin Mary and placed under the protection of his two patron saints, Anthony the Abbot and Catherine of Alexandria.