Missal of Barbara of Brandenburg

Missal of Barbara of Brandenburg

The Italian painter and illuminator Belbello da Pavia began work in the year 1442 on a manuscript, which belongs today among the most exciting and precious codices of the Middle Ages. The Missal of Barbara of Brandenburg was manufactured over 20+ years through the collaboration of some of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance. The splendid work contains 70 full-page, breathtaking miniatures. The 12 text pages presenting a calendar are particularly beautiful and elaborate. The handwritten text of the work is embellished with over 2,000 fantastically illuminated initials of various sizes.

The Countess Barbara von Brandenburg

Barbara von Brandenburg was the oldest child of Margrave Johann von Brandenburg and his wife Barbara, a daughter of Rudolf II von Sachsen-Wittenberg. She was already married to Margrave Luigi III Gonzaga von Mantua at the tender age of 11. The young Marquis grew up at the court of Mantua together with other members of the Gonzaga family and developed into one of the most remarkable and cultivated women of the Renaissance. She could speak four languages fluently and was a great patron of art and literature. The astounding Missal of Barbara of Brandenburg was originally created at the behest of Gianlucido Gonzaga (1421–1448). He commissioned Belbello da Pavia with the design of the work. When he died in 1448, Barbara had already long recognized the unbelievable worth of the enchantingly illuminated masterpiece. She had work on the manuscript continued a year later.

Europe’s Greatest Artists

Belbello da Pavia, who began with the design of the missal in 1442, is considered today to be the most important representative of late-Gothic illumination. Together with the calligrapher Pietro Paolo Marono, who also composed the text of the famous Bible of Borso d’Este, produced a stunningly beautiful liturgical book, which remained unfinished for nearly a decade after da Gianlucido’s death. In 1461, Barbara of Brandenburg was finally able, through the mediation of Andrea Mantegna, to engage Girolamo da Cremona to complete the valuable manuscript, a task that took him another four years. With his illuminations, he allowed the enchanting depictions by da Pavia—which were still stylistically rooted in the late Gothic style—to meet with new stylistic elements of the progressing Early Renaissance. All of the miniatures were painted in powerful colors and are extraordinarily richly furnished with gold leaf and lapis lazuli.