Biography

Italian illuminator, also called Gaspare Romano. The birth date of this Paduan artist is not known, he was active in Rome in the 1480s. In 1483, together with Bartolomeo Sanvito, he was among the family member and guests of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga in Rome. He was probably trained in Padua and in the Veneto in the circle of Marco Zoppo. It was suggested that his early works can be identified with those of the so-called Master of the Putti, a Paduan manuscript illuminator active between 1469 and 1478.

In 1485 he was in the service of Cardinal Giovanni of Aragon (1456-1485) in Naples while continuing to work in Rome. From this period, several manuscript illuminations are attributed to him, for example, Gregory the Great of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (Fonds lat. 2231/1), the Valerius Maximus, New York (Public Library, Spencer 20), illuminated in 1480-85, the Vatican Virgil and Aristotle, performed for Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat lat. 3255 and 2094).

Other miniatures are attributed to him on the basis of stylistic similarities with the works mentioned above: Josephus of the University Library of Valencia (Ms. 836), which belonged to Alfonso II of Aragon; the Scriptores Historiae Augustae in Rome (National Library, Vitt. Amendment 1004), where we see a antiquarian interest, almost scientific, for ancient coins, as well as the Caesar of Rome, Casanatense Library (Ms. 453) and Strabo of the National Library in Vienna (codes Gr 3).

He participated in several architectural projects in Rome. He died falling from a scaffold.