Veiling and Undveiling in Italian Manuscripts of the Second Half of Fifteenth Century

This essay deals with the issue of materiality in painted images of manuscripts and incunabula realized in Veneto or Northern Italy, in the second half of the fifteenth century. It is well known that, in this area and in this period, painters, in tune with their patrons, carried out several studies on illusionism coupled with a deep concern for optical perspicuity and material rendering. This way, through illustrations, the written page became an open window on the three-dimensional reality. At the same time, illuminators wanted to make clear that even the most perfect illusions were actually painted images and, therefore, fictions by their own nature. From this concept comes the title of this lecture that includes the words ‘veiling’ and ‘unveiling’ thus suggesting how the artists interpreted the game between reality and fiction developed through the visual language. The codices here chosen are manuscripts preserved in Wolfenbüttel. In particular Cod. Guelf. 6 Gud. lat.; Cod. Guelf. 332 Gud. lat.; Cod. Guelf. 126 Gud. lat.; Cod. Guelf. 85.I.I. Aug. 2°. The intent is to analyze the illuminations here contained from the point of view of simulation and dissimulation of the depicted reality.