GIRALDI, Guglielmo
(active 1445-1489)

Biography

Italian illuminator. The son of a tailor, Giovanni Giraldi is documented continuously in Ferrara from 1445 to 1477. With Taddeo Crivelli, he was the favourite illuminator of Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and the Gonzaga of Mantua. and one of the most important Ferrarese personalities in Renaissance book decoration.

Giraldi worked on a number of important commissions in Ferrara, including a set of choir books for the city's Carthusian monastery and the Bible of Borso d'Este, perhaps the most costly and lavish book in the history of Ferrarese art. Around 1477 Giraldi moved to Urbino, where he worked for Duke Federigo da Montefeltro, illuminating Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy, and other works.

In his miniatures, Giraldi demonstrated his familiarity with the works of Piero della Francesca and Cosimo Tura, both of whom worked at the Este court. He was one of the pioneers of the new Renaissance style in manuscript illumination in northern Italy. Many documented works by Giraldi remain untraced.



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