active:about 1480 - 1505
illuminator
Italian

The illuminator Antonio da Monza brought a Renaissance fascination with antiquity to the art of manuscript illumination at the end of the 1400s and beginning of the 1500s. Identified through his signature on a miniature from a liturgical book made for Pope Alexander VI and now in Vienna, he was a native of Monza, outside of Milan, and a member of the Franciscan Order.

Antonio's artistic style was influenced by the art of Leonardo da Vinci. Scholars have attributed several liturgical books, as well as some miniatures in the Sforza Hours and in Antonio Minuti's Life of Muzio Attendolo, to him. The recent discovery of the Golden House of Nero, an ancient Roman villa, and its Fourth Style wall paintings influenced Antonio's work, supplying him with a rich visual vocabulary of ancient motifs.