|
Lauro Padovano
( fl c. 1471–1508). Italian painter and illuminator. He may be identifiable with a certain ‘Laurum de sancto Johanne de Padua’ documented in 1482 in Rome as having given a professional opinion on the frescoes on the walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace. In 1508 Bartolomeo Sanvito possessed two works executed by Lauro for the opening hours of a Book of Hours or the Office, which would seem to suggest that he was active as an illuminator. Documentary evidence indicates that Lauro was familiar with Mantegna’s Paduan works and that he worked with Giovanni Bellini at least before his visit to Rome. The main source for the reconstruction of Lauro’s oeuvre is Marcantonio Michiel, who mentioned an altarpiece (1468–71; untraced) in S Maria della Carità, Venice, by Giovanni Bellini, dedicated to St John the Evangelist, with a predella painted by Lauro Padovano. A panel representing the Legend of Drusiana (Berchtesgaden, Schlossmus.) has been identified as belonging to the Carità predella and its style was used as the basis for a catalogue of Lauro’s works until its recent attribution to Leonardo Bellini. Two panels depicting the Martyrdom of St John the Evangelist (ex-Vieweg priv. col., Brunswick; see Bauer Eberhardt, pp. 50, 68) and the Resurrection of Drusiana (Bergamo, Accad. Carrara B.A. & Liceo A.) have also been linked to the predella and attributed to Lauro. Through comparisons with these two panels, formerly ascribed to Francesco Bonsignori, a group of illuminated manuscripts collected under the name of Bartolomeo Sanvito has been attributed to Lauro. These include Cicero’s De officiis (1497; Eton, Berks, Coll. Lib., MS. 149), Petrarch’s Rime e trionfi (1490–1500; London, Sotheby’s, 20 June 1978, no. 2989) and an Evangeliary (1509; Padua, Bib. Capitolare, Cod. E. 27). Lauro Padovano has been proposed as the Master of the Vatican Homer, but it is more probable that the latter is to be identified with Gaspare Padovano.
|
|
There are more than 45,000 articles in The Grove Dictionary of Art.
To access the rest of this article, including the bibliography, subscribe to
www.groveart.com.
To find out more about this subject, click on a related article below and
subscribe to www.groveart.com
|
