Breviario de Fernando El Católico

Breviario de Fernando El Católico

The Christmas scene presents a true rush of color: the newborn Savior lies upon a cloth on the straw (and not in a crib!) amidst a halo and surrounded by reverent parents: Mary in a gorgeous blue cloak and Joseph in red robes. A troop of angels praying and playing music in bright robes stands in the background. Ox and donkey lay in an artful manger on the right margin gazing at a city and the landscape on the magically luminous horizon. Two men approach from the left, one dressed in red and appearing distinguished, the other is furnished with staff and basket. Both shepherds and angels of the Lord appear in the background!

A Spiritual Present for the Spanish King

This impressive miniature is representative of the thoroughly splendid artistic furnishings of the prayer book of Ferdinand the Catholic (1452–1516). The splendid manuscript presumably originated in Spain ca. 1503–1512 at the behest of Giovanni Maria Poderico. He was the King’s chaplain and the Archbishop of Taranto in Italy since 1510. The artist responsible is believed to be the Spanish painter Pedro de Aponte, who is famous above all for his works with religious content and presented the entirety of his skill with this private devotional book for the king.

An Intoxicating Visual Experience

The prayer book primarily contains the offices for Christmas, Three Kings Day, and Easter. This liturgical content was illustrated with full-page miniatures in the style of Renaissance illumination. Gorgeous decorative frames consisting of architectural elements populated with numerous additional figurative representations surround the large primary-miniatures in the center. On the page already mentioned with the birth of Christ in the manger in Bethlehem, there are depictions of saints, angels in grisaille painting, two smaller Marian scenes in luminous blue, and more. The artistic adornment of the manuscript is attested to by the outstanding richness and quality of the miniatures.

The Catholic King in Portrait

The manuscript hides three portraits of the King among the content-related biblical scenes, on folios 1v, 62r, and 111v to be precise. In doing so, Don Fernando, presented here as protector of Christianity, is always depicted alone. In the field of research, this fact is considered to be an indication for dating the manuscript, which was probably made after Isabella’s death in November 1504 and Ferdinand’s second marriage to Germana de Foix in 1506. After Ferdinand’s death, the breviary remained in the possession of the Spanish kings, in El Escorial inter alia, and first reached the Vatican library in the 17th century through Pope Alexander VII, where it is housed as an important historical treasure today.