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Anovelo da Imbonate

( fl c. 1395–1402). Italian illuminator. Two Sacramentaries in Milan are documented as his work. He was responsible for the illumination of all bifolios with historiation in the Coronation Missal of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (Milan, Bib. Capitolare S Ambrogio, MS. 6), which bears his signature below the miniature of Christ in Majesty (fol. 153v). The list of expenses incurred in the production of the Missal of S Tecla (1402; Milan, Bib. Capitolare Met., MS. II, D. I. 2, fol. 215r) records payment to Anovelo of 89 lire 6 soldi for illuminating the initials and canonical miniature. His style is a more schematic and crude version of that of the MASTER OF LATIN 757 (see MASTERS, ANONYMOUS, AND MONOGRAMMISTS, §I): decorative and detailed, with compact, round-headed figures with generalized features, often in patterned clothing set against patterned grounds. His most impressive work is on folio 8r of the Coronation Missal, which is remarkable for the accuracy with which it records the investiture of Giangaleazzo Visconti as 1st Duke of Milan in September 1395. It was in commemoration of this event that the Duke presented the manuscript to the basilica of S Ambrogio. Anovelo also illuminated two identical copies of the Lives of SS Aimone and Vermondo, founders of the monastery of S Vittorio de Meda outside Milan (Milan, Castello Sforzesco, MS. 509 and ex-Jeanson priv. col., sold Monaco, Sotheby’s, 28 Feb–1 March 1987, lot 339). Like those in the Sacramentaries, these scenes are attractive and colourful, but artistically naive. The attribution of the frescoed decoration of some Lombard oratories to Anovelo has been suggested.

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  Reproduced by kind permission of Macmillan Publishers Limited, publishers of The Grove Dictionary of Art.
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