Biography

Italian illuminator, part of a family of artists. He was the brother of Ambrogio de Predis. The de Predis family hosted Leonardo da Vinci when he visited Milan for the commission Virgin of the Rocks, and Leonardo met Cristoforo on that occasion. Cristoforo was born deaf.

His oeuvre has been reconstructed on the basis of four signed works, the chronology of which remains controversial. The first mention of Cristoforo is in a notarial act of September 1467, concerning the division of the paternal inheritance, in which he is described as 'mutus' (mute). His name is mentioned again, in the same connection, in a letter dated 1472. Cristoforo worked as an illuminator at least from 1471, when a payment to him is recorded in the archives of the Borromeo family: he received money or gifts, especially articles of clothing, from the family until 1474. It was probably in this period that he decorated the Borromeo Book of Hours (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana). The work is signed but not dated. In this work his elegant and refined style is combined with Renaissance motifs, and these became more substantial in his mature works.