Associate
Artists
The first page of the main text (fol. 6r) may have been designed by Francesco di Antonio del Chierico and he may have completed the cherubs’ faces and flesh. But the colours and finishing outlines were applied by a different hand.
The pigments are more saturated, the white vine scrolls more firmly delineated and the modelling of the cherubs’ drapery more schematic. All of these features emulate del Chierico’s early works faithfully enough to suggest the hand of a close associate.
Opening page of Charlemagne’s Life
Donato Acciaiuoli’s Vita Caroli Magni opens with a title and an initial C executed in gold leaf. The initial is enveloped in white vine scroll on blue, pink and green background, which also forms the full border, inhabited by cherubs (putti), birds and deer (hotspots 1-3). The border also includes a medallion with plants and the royal arms of France supported by putti. The latter show subtle visual and material differences with the putti painted in the same position on fol. 2r (hotspots 4 and 5), supporting the attribution of the decoration to two different artists.