Two people gesture towards a display of manuscript leaves

Curators from the J. Paul Getty Museum and The Fitzwilliam Museum discuss the relationships between a selection of manuscript leaves from the Laudario of Sant'Agnese during a project study day at the Getty.

Pacino di Bonaguida, a follower of Giotto, was a hugely prolific and versatile artist who worked as both a panel painter and a manuscript illuminator. Active in Florence from around 1300 until the 1340s, Pacino dominated the market for illuminated manuscripts in that city, producing many of the first illustrated copies of The Divine Comedy by Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, as well as the Laudario of Sant'Agnese, the most lavish manuscript commission in Florence from the first half of the 14th century.

Given the large number of works attributed to Pacino, it is generally agreed that he must have assembled a workshop of artists who worked in the style of the master artist. He also is known to have collaborated with other master artists who had their own distinctive artistic styles. For example, the Laudario of Sant'Agnese contains illuminations attributed both to Pacino and an artist known as the Master of the Dominican Effigies.

Four remarkable works from Pacino's workshop in the Getty's collection—three illuminated leaves from the celebrated Laudario of Sant'Agnese (Ms. 80, Ms. 80a, and Ms. 80b) and a panel painting known as the Chiarito Tabernacle (85.PB.311)—represent the core of the study. The opportunity to study works by a single artist on two different media—panel and parchment—served as the foundation for a scientific and technical study to better understand artistic collaboration and workshop practice in 14th-century Florence, and how the materials and techniques employed in each medium may have affected the appearance of the works over time.

To more fully examine the nature of workshop collaboration, additional works by both Pacino and the Master of the Dominican Effigies on both media were also examined. In total, thirty-one works were studied: twenty-four attributed to Pacino (seventeen illuminations and seven panel paintings) and seven attributed to the Master of the Dominican Effigies (four illuminations and three panel paintings).

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