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Unknown Master, 'Saint George Codex', c.1325-30

 


Within this complex, extensively illustrated liturgical book, one finds an image of Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi. The viewer uncovers him seated at the oblique angle of his desk, virtually falling out of his designated 'frame' as he leans over, hard at work completing the hymns that he wrote into this very missal. This volume is a form of meta-painting - Cardinal Stefaneschi contributed to its contents and the viewer sees him portrayed in pictorial form in that very act, a picture within a picture. 

The general skills required for manuscript illumination were highly diverse. Stefaneschi is situated within the letter 'E', its blue form with gold, foliated details offering a barrier to prevent the Cardinal's descent out of the picture plane towards the reader. A decorative border frames the general text, pierced by the galero of Stefaneschi, his red Cardinal's hat, hovering at the top of the page over his hunched form. It implies the viewer has disturbed him at a private moment, not wearing his formal clothing in a studiolo setting. Stefaneschi's coat of arms also sit at the base of this page, highlighting not only that the codex was his commission, but showing the increasing use of heraldry as a statement of power into the 1300s. From the lettering, scholars have identified a conflation of Italian and French Gothic types, situating its production in Avignon. Stefaneschi was present there from 1307 until his death in 1341 so only a large date frame can be applied to the volume. Most importantly, it was intended for the basilica of Old Saint Peter's. This has implications for other commissions in that very space. 

Attribution was traditional given to Giotto, from his work known as the Stefaneschi altarpiece for Old Saint Peter's. On this panel, the Cardinal appears twice - he presents himself to Christ in a simple, purple habit and he also gifts the altarpiece itself to Saint Peter, again a form of meta-painting. It is possible that these two works, the altarpiece and the manuscript, were in the same location at some point. Their comparison leads to a discussion of portraiture in the 1300s. The use of the term 'portrait' needs to be contested - the protagonist, in this case Cardinal Stefaneschi, was not posing or sitting as one would for a traditional portrait. It is more useful to use the term 'likeness'. There are vague similarities between altarpiece and parchment, including Stefaneschi's receding hairline and pointed, angular features. Yet fundamentally Stefaneschi is much older in the manuscript, graying and wrinkled, and with only a side-on view of his face in the altarpiece it makes comparison difficult. As Laura Jacobus describes, portraits are now understood as 'constructions' and during this period 'true likeness seldom took priority'. 

If it was not Giotto, is there another possible author? Into the twentieth century, it was argued that the volume's illuminator was in fact Giacomo de Nicola, an artist born and trained in Siena before he moved to Avignon to pick up these commissions. Siena now emerges as a leading centre of artistic practice in the Trecento. So often art history focuses on Florence, yet it is Siena where some of the most impressive 'super-icons' of the day were produced - Duccio's Maesta - as well as important civic monuments, including the Palazzo Pubblico decorated by Simone Martini and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Siena was also an important centre for the 'minor' arts and especially known for its goldsmiths, most famously Guccio di Mannaia. An exploration of the Saint George Codex does not just lead to an appreciation of manuscript illumination, a discussion of the patron Stefaneschi or even the potentiality of portraiture in the Trecento, but it leads to wider considerations on the decentring of the early Renaissance. 

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