Girolamo dai Libri

Girolamo dai Libri (1474/1475 – July 2, 1555) was an Italian illuminator of manuscripts and painter of altarpieces, working in an early Renaissance style. He learned the art from his father Francesco dai Libri, a skilled illuminator, but most likely also attended the workshop of Domenico Morone, where he formed a friendship with Morone's son Francesco, with whom he later collaborated on several commissions as an adult. Already at a young age he distinguished himself in the production of miniatures, especially for the convent of Santa Maria in Organo in Verona. According to the account of Giorgio Vasari, he astonished his contemporaries when, at about 25 years of age, he painted for the same church the altarpiece Deposition from the Cross, a work deeply influenced by the style of Andrea Mantegna. This influence is also evident in his later works, which additionally show echoes of the Venetian models of Bellini and Montagna. Starting in the 1510s, his paintings were further enriched by Lombard-Roman influences introduced to the city by Giovan Francesco Caroto. A distinctive feature of his work is the landscape background framing the main scenes, rendered with meticulous attention to detail. Striking examples of this mastery can be found in the Nativity with Rabbits and in Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well. This attention to landscape derives from his training as an illuminator, an activity he never abandoned throughout his career, combining it with the execution of large canvases. After overcoming a period of stylistic uncertainty at the end of the 1520s, he returned to drawing inspiration from the Mantegnesque models that had marked his youthful works, producing some of his most prized canvases, including the Madonna dell'Ombrellino and the Madonna della Quercia, dating respectively to 1530 and 1533 and now both preserved in the museo di Castelvecchio in Verona.