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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2021
The artist Matteo Giovannetti, originally from Viterbo, arrived at the papal court of Avignon in the early 1340s. During the reign of pope Clement VI (1342–1352), he succeeded in organizing a court-based workshop of an unprecedented size, which has left numerous traces in the papal administrative archives. This exceptional documentation makes it possible to reconstruct the administrative, financial, material, and technical phases of this workshop’s development, corresponding to the increasing affirmation of Matteo’s artistic position. As well as his mastery of the new Italian visual culture, Matteo drew on innovative techniques in fresco production, project management, and bookkeeping. Studying his workshop thus shines a light on the figure of the artist, at once craftsman, courtier, and entrepreneur. It also reveals the collective and material dimension of creative labor in fourteenth-century Europe.
This article was translated from the French by Amy Jacobs-Colas and edited by Chloe Morgan and Stephen Sawyer.
My thanks to the Annales’ anonymous readers and to Philippe Bernardi, Giulia Puma, Valérie Theis, Dominique Vingtain, and Charlotte Guichard, to whom this text is dedicated; their research and their intellectual generosity have been essential guides for my own work in the field of painting.
1 Stendhal, Memoirs of a Tourist [1854], trans. Allan Seager (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1962), 117–18: “I went over all the different floors of this singular fortress with the keenest of interest. I saw the stake (called an ‘awakener’) on which the Inquisition made the ungodly sit who were unwilling to confess their crimes, and I observed the charming heads, the remains of Giotto’s frescoes. The red contours of the original drawings are still visible on the walls.”
2 Éric Michaud, Les invasions barbares. Une généalogie de l’histoire de l’art (Paris: Gallimard, 2015); Michela Passini, L’œil et l’archive. Une histoire de l’histoire de l’art (Paris: La Découverte, 2017).
3 Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, Its Origins and Character (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), 24.
4 Enrico Castelnuovo, Un peintre italien à la cour d’Avignon. Matteo Giovannetti et la peinture en Provence au xiv e siècle [1962], trans. Simone Darses and Sylvie Girard (Paris: G. Monfort 1996). See in particular the preface to the second edition highlighting the role of Roberto Longhi, who advised Castelnuovo in the 1950s to write his doctoral thesis on Matteo, a major yet forgotten figure of fourteenth-century art.
5 Michel Laclotte and Sylvie Béguin, eds., Primitifs italiens des musées de France, catalogue for the exhibition “De Giotto à Bellini,” May–July 1956, Musée des Arts décoratifs (Paris: Éditions des Musées nationaux, 1956).
6 Michel Laclotte, L’École d’Avignon. La peinture en Provence aux xiv e et xv e siècles (Paris: Gonthier-Seghers, 1960).
7 Michel Laclotte and Dominique Thiébaut, L’École d’Avignon (Paris: Flammarion, 1983).
8 Castelnuovo, Un peintre italien, 15: “an additional motive [for studying Avignon] had to do with the extraordinary wealth of extant documentation: seldom has the organization of work on a fourteenth-century project—the operation, training, and supervision of the crews assigned to decorate this or that place, the different tasks and remuneration depending on the painters—been revealed so clearly. In this sense too, a study of papal Avignon looked potentially exemplary for a social history of art.”
9 On the publication and structure of the documentation, see Étienne Anheim and Valérie Theis, eds., “Les comptabilités pontificales,” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome, Moyen Âge 118, no. 2 (2006): 165–268; particularly Anheim and Theis, “La comptabilité des dépenses de la papauté au xive siècle. Structure documentaire et usages de l’écrit,” 165–68.
10 I was able to speak with Castelnuovo several times while conducting detailed research at the Vatican Archives for my doctoral thesis, entitled “Pouvoir pontifical et culture de cour sous le règne de Clément VI” (École pratique des hautes études, Section IV, 2004), my thesis for the École française de Rome, entitled “Financement et organisation des chantiers de peinture pontificaux au xive siècle” (Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 2005), and my postdoctoral habilitation thesis, entitled “La valeur de l’art. Une histoire matérielle et spirituelle de la peinture italienne, v. 1270–v. 1460” (Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2015).
11 François Enaud, “Les fresques du Palais des papes d’Avignon. Problèmes techniques de restauration d’hier et d’aujourd’hui,” Les monuments historiques de la France 2/3 (1971): 1–140.
12 Roland Recht, L’objet de l’histoire de l’art (Paris: Collège de France/Fayard, 2003).
13 Passini, L’œil et l’archive.
14 Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972); Svetlana Alpers, Rembrandt’s Enterprise: The Studio and the Market (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Alpers, The Making of Rubens (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995).
15 For an example of this type of concrete history of practices, values, and artistic gestures in the eighteenth century, see Charlotte Guichard, Les amateurs d’art à Paris au xviii e siècle (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2008); Guichard, Graffitis. Inscrire son nom à Rome, xvi e–xix e siècle (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2014); Guichard, ed., De l’authenticité. Une histoire des valeurs de l’art, xvi e–xx e siècle (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2014).
16 Howard S. Becker, Art Worlds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); Robert R. Faulkner and Howard S. Becker, “Do You Know … ?”: The Jazz Repertoire in Action (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).
17 Pierre-Michel Menger, The Economics of Creativity: Art and Achievement Under Uncertainty [2009], trans. Steven Rendall et al. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014); Menger, La différence, la concurrence et la disproportion. Sociologie du travail créateur (Paris: Collège de France/Fayard, 2014).
18 Martin Warnke, The Court Artist: On the Ancestry of the Modern Artist [1985], trans. David McLintock (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
19 Castelnuovo, Un peintre italien, 55–56.
20 Bruno Zanardi, Il cantiere di Giotto. Le storie di San Francesco ad Assisi (Milan: Skira, 1996); Serena Romano, La basilica di San Francesco ad Assisi. Pittori, botteghe, strategie narrative (Rome: Viella, 2001).
21 Castelnuovo, Un peintre italien.
22 Bernard Guillemain, La cour pontificale d’Avignon, 1309–1376. Étude d’une société (Paris: E. De Boccard, 1966).
23 Vatican City, Archivio Segreto Vaticano (hereafter “ASV”), Camera Apostolica (hereafter “Cam. Ap.”), Reg. Suppl. 4, fol. 121v. This petition, which has not previously been used by historians, was published early in the twentieth century by Carlo Cipolla, “Note petrarchesche desunte dall’archivio vaticano,” in Francesco Petrarca e le sue relazioni colla corte avignonese al tempo di Clemente VI (Turin: V. Bona, 1909), 7.
24 ASV, Cam. Ap., Reg. Av. 73, fol. 523 for the heading and letter Reg. Vat. 215, fols. 131v–132v.
25 ASV, Cam. Ap., Reg. Av. 97, fol. 170, and Reg. Suppl. 16, fol. 15v.
26 ASV, Cam. Ap., Reg. Suppl. 17, fol. 240, and Reg. Av. 101, fol. 340.
27 ASV, Cam. Ap., Reg. Av. 114, fol. 65.
28 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 120v: “Guillelmo Flecherii, mercatori Avenionis, pro 20 lib. dazur emptis pro pingenda gardarauda pape per magistrum Matheum Iohoti de Viterbio, 4 d. tur. gross. pro libra, 8 libr. mon. Aven.”
29 Étienne Anheim, “La ‘Chambre du cerf.’ Image, savoir et nature à Avignon au milieu du xive siècle,” Micrologus 16 (2008): 57–124.
30 On the Master of the Codex of Saint George, see Emma Condello, “I codici Stefaneschi. Uno scriptorium cardinalizio del Trecento tra Roma e Avignone,” Archivio della Società romana di storia patria 110 (1987): 21–61; Condello, “I codici Stefaneschi. Libri e commitenza di un cardinale avignonese,” Archivio della Società romana di storia patria 112 (1989): 195–218; Francesca Manzari, La miniatura ad Avignone al tempo dei papi (Modena: F. C. Panini, 2006), 78–83. For a historiographic and bibliographic presentation of Simone Martini’s workshop in Avignon, see Étienne Anheim, “Simone Martini à Avignon. Une histoire en négatif ?” in Images and Words in Exile: Avignon and Italy in the First Half of the 14th Century (1310–1352), ed. Gerhard Wolf, Elisa Brilli, and Laura Fenelli (Florence: Sismel-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2015), 365–79; Emma Capron, “Simone Martini’s Last Documented Work,” Burlington Magazine 156, no. 1366 (2017): 4–13.
31 Étienne Anheim, “Financement et organisation des chantiers de peinture pontificaux au xive siècle” (dissertation for the École française de Rome, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 2005).
32 Valérie Theis, “La construction du palais de Pont-de-Sorgues sous Jean XXII” (MA diss., Université d’Avignon, 1997).
33 Valérie Theis, “Décrire le chantier ou écrire le chantier ? Titres et offices dans les comptes de construction pontificaux de la première moitié du xive siècle,” in Offices, écrit et papauté, xiii e–xvii e siècle, ed. Armand Jamme and Olivier Poncet (Rome: École française de Rome, 2007), 643–66.
34 Ibid.
35 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 211, fol. 37v: “die 17 decembris [1343] mutuati sunt magistro Matheo de Viterbio pro pingendo deambulatoriis domini nostri super ortum facto precio cum ipso ad rationem 4 s. pro canna: 20 flor.”
36 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 138v, for Robin de Romans, December 23, 1343: “pro pictura camere pape supra stufas per eum facta de picta pretio cum eo 20 fl.” For Rico of Arezzo, ibid., fol. 177v: “eadem die solvimus Riconi de Arecio pictori pro tota vite per quam ascenditur de stufis ad capellam domini nostri novam supra gardam raubam depingenda de qua fuit conventum cum eo ad 10 flor.”
37 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 216, fol. 140v: on September 28, 1344, Rico of Arezzo was paid “pro pingendo introitum camere domini nostri cuius opus continet 17 cannas et nos tradidimus sibi adurium [sic, for azurium] propterea necessarium 2 fl. 20 s.”; published, with a lacuna, in Karl-Heinrich Schäfer, Die Ausgaben der Apostolichen Kammer unter Benedikt XII., Klemens VI. und Innocenz VI. (1335–1362) (Paderborn: F. Schöningh, 1914), 3:278.
38 On February 4, 1344, Symonet of Lyon, Bisono Catalanito, and Jean Moys were paid “pro vite garde raube et capelle nove pingendo, precio facto cum eis 10 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 139v); on March 17, 1344, “precio facto cum Robino de Romanis de pingendo cameram in qua habitat dominus de Cambornio in hospitio pape ultra Rodanum apud Villam Novam 16 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 142v; the same passage, dated April 3, reappears on fol. 143); on April 26, 1344, Master Nicolo of Florence and his workers were paid “facto cum eis precio de pingendo magnam cameram contiguam parvo tinello pape 200 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 145); on April 28, 1344, Francesco and Nicolo of Florence, Rico of Arezzo, and Pietro of Viterbo were paid “facto precio cum eisdem de pingendo partem superiorem domus nove pape apud Villam Novam 100 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 146); and on September 6, 1344, Rico of Arezzo and Pietro of Viterbo were paid “facto precio de pingendo aliam partem garderaube pape videlicet celo de azurio cum stellis et parietes sicut alia pars facta extitit 26 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 216, fol. 140).
39 On February 9, 1344, Bernard Escot and Pierre de Castris received “sub certo precio videlicet 80 fl. pingendam cameram que est media subtus cameram pape novam 80 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 140), and on May 18, Giovanni Luchi of Siena received “pro pictura per eum facta in pariete capelle palacii apostolici facto super hoc precio cum eodem 50 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 147), while Robin de Romans and Bertrand Escot were paid “pro pictura per eos facta in cameris tam paramenti quam persone pape una cum 2 studiis in hospitio eiusdem apud Villam Novam facta super hoc pretio cum eisdem 200 fl.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 147v).
40 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 150: “Robino de Romanis et Bernoni Escot pictoribus pro pingendo deambulatorium magnum ante cameram que est in capite deambulatorii ac etiam unum meianum facto [sic] de novo in deambulatorio facto super hoc pretio cum eisdem per magistrum Matheum pictorem pape 60 fl.”
41 ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 384, fol. 58: “Avinione, in camera thesaurarii coram reverendo in Christo Patre domino Stephano episcopo Casinense, Robinus de Romanis, diocesis Viennensis et Berninus Scoti, habitator avinionensis, pictores, promiserunt pingere bene et decenter deambulatorium quod est ante hospicium palacii sive hospicium domini nostri pape ultra rodanum apud Villamnovam a parte orientis eiusdem hospicii iuxta formam mostram, datam et traditam in quodam instrumento papiri domino thesaurario supradicto per Matheum Johanneti et debent ipsi pictores habere colores et alia omnia eis pro dictis picturis faciendis necessita suis expensis exceptis lignis pro colores faciendis et pro stageriis et clavellis et premissa promiserunt facere precio 60 flor. auri.”
42 ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 384, fol. 58v: “Eodem die Petrus Boeri dioc. Mimatensis et Perrotus Ribaudi pictores habitatores Avinionis promiserunt pingere bene et decenter ad cognitionem magistrorum illius artis duas vites que sunt in hospicio domini nostri pape magno ultra pontem ad Villamnovam iuxta formam et picturam ostensam et datam per magistrum Matheum Johaneti pictorem etc.”
43 Camillo Minieri-Riccio, “Genealogia di Carlo II d’Angio Re di Napoli,” Archivio storico per le provincie napoletane 7 (1882): 676; Riccardo Filangieri, “Rassegna critica delle fonti per la storia di Castel Nuovo, I,” Archivio storico per le provincie napoletane 61 (1936): 320.
44 Étienne Anheim, “Naissance d’un office. Pierre Sintier, premier maître de chapelle du pape (1336–1350),” in Jamme and Poncet, Offices, écrit et papauté, 276–301.
45 ASV, Cam. Ap., Reg. Suppl. 4, fol. 121v.
46 Philippe Bernardi, “L’enregistrement des dépenses pontificales à Avignon au xive siècle. Quelques réflexions sur les sources des Grands Livres et sur le rôle des cursors,” in Classer, dire, compter. Discipline du chiffre et fabrique d’une norme comptable à la fin du Moyen Âge, ed. Olivier Mattéoni and Patrice Beck (Paris: Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France, 2015), 179–98.
47 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 140v, published in part in Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312. See also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 234, fol. 92: “Die 3 januarii magister Matheus Johannoti de Viterbio pictor computavit de expensis per ipsum solutis pro pictura capellarum sancti Michaelis et sancti Martialis que sunt infra palatium apostolicum avinionensem. Et primo computat solvisse pro 504 dietis pictorum qui laboraverunt in pictura capelle sancti Michaelis que est in capite turris garderobe domini nostri pape videlicet a 19 die januarii de anno domino 1345 usque ad 25 diem septembris de eodem anno sub diversis preciis prout in libro suo particulariter in summa 71 l. 9s.”
48 See, for example, November 21, 1346, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 247, fol. 101v, published in part in Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 350; also in ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 248, fols. 116v–117, and IE 243, fol. 117v: “Compotus redditus per magistrum Matheum Iohanneti de Viterbio, pictorem pape, de diversis picturis factis per eum in palacio Apostolico, prout sequitur et prout in libro rationum suarum per eum camere assignato plenius continetur: computat incepisse operari in opere porte capelle magne palacii Apostolici Avinione et in choro eiusdem capelle 6 aprilis et finivisse 22 maii 1346, pro quo siquidem opere computat sibi deberi tam pro se ipso quam suis operariis 15 libr. 3 s. 6 d. parve; pro opere consistorii et tabularum altaris pape computat operasse a 29 maii usque ad 10 novembris 1346, tam pro dietis suis quam operariorum 263 lib. 7 s. parve. Item computat soluisse et expendisse in diversis coloribus ad opus dictorum operum per eum emptis contentis plenius et specificatis in dicto libro suarum rationum preter tamen azurio sibi per nos tradito in summa 72 lib. 2 s. 8 d., [total] 292 flor. 5 s. 2 d. (1 flor. = 24 s.).”
49 For a comprehensive study of wall painting in Rome in the fourteenth century see Serena Romano, Eclissi di Roma. Pittura murale a Roma e nel Lazio da Bonifacio VIII a Martino V (1295–1431) (Rome: Argos, 1992).
50 For example, two payments recorded on April 28, 1346, indicate that Matteo was working on the decoration of Villeneuve in two bedchambers next to the pope’s wardrobe (garde-robe) as well as in the tower (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 150).
51 The painters began work destined for the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu in 1349, with the painted panels discussed below (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 260, fols. 162 and 173); see also ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 462, fols. 154v and 157v. They then worked on-site in 1351 (ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 462, fol. 272v) and 1352 (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 265, fol. 86v); see also ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 462, fol. 310v. On artists at La Chaise-Dieu, see Frédérique-Anne Costantini, “Les artistes de la Chaise-Dieu (1344–1352) d’après l’étude de la comptabilité pontificale,” Revue de l’art 110 (1995): 44–55.
52 For example, on August 12, 1345, Rico of Arezzo was paid “pro pictura tecti magni tinelli, 4 s. pro canna pro labore suo, quod siquidem tectum [sic] continet 180 cannas, 36 lb. in 30 fl. (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 133); see also Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 311. On February 3, 1346, Matteo was paid 10 sous per square canna for painting 178 square canne of walls in the corridors leading to the great banqueting hall (grand tinel) (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 143v); see also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 239, fol. 88, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312. On March 11, 1346, Pierre Boerii and Pierre Rabant were paid for painting a total of 107½ canne of the main staircase at Villeneuve at a rate of 4 sous per canna (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 148); see also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 239, fol. 101, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312.
53 This was the case for most presentations of accounts starting in January 1346 (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 140v), including the one for October 1347 covered by Matteo’s notebook; see also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 234, fol. 92, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312.
54 On this coronation, see ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 247, fol. 112 (also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 243, fol. 128 and IE 247, fol. 127, as well as Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 350); on April 18, 1347, Matteo was paid “de picturis factis … ubi est coronatio et quatuor summi pontifices.” Azure for the Saint Martial chapel Virgin was purchased on January 25, 1346, at an extremely high price from a merchant named Gabriel of Milan; the accounts specify “pro pictura ymaginis beate Marie, que fit in capella magni tinelli” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 142v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312). On March 17 of that year, fifty sheets of gold leaf were purchased from Salvatore Salvi “pro pingenda ymagine beate Marie super hostium capelle magni tinelli pape” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 148, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312). Payment for the work itself was recorded on April 5, in an entry specifying that the azure and gold had not been counted (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 152; see also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 239, fol. 111, and an excerpt in Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 313): “pro pictura ymaginis beate Marie cum filio facte in magna aula palatii papalis supra hostium capelle palatii, que bis facta extitit. Pro salario magistri et pictorum, qui fuerunt in dicto opere a 19 novembris 1345 usque ad 4 april, 43 lb. 13 s. 4 d. Item pro diversis coloribus grossis sine azurio et sine auro necessariis pro dicta ymagine, 66 s. 7 d.”
55 The three paintings attributed to Matteo (see note 112 below) do not seem to coincide with the works mentioned in the Curial documentation. The presentation of accounts of November 21, 1346, notes that Matteo was paid “pro … opere tabularum altaris pape” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 247, fol. 101v; see also IE 243, fol. 117v, IE 248, fols. 116v–117, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 350). In the presentation of accounts of April 18, 1347 (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 247, fol. 112), we find a partial payment “pro factura tabule altaris capelle dicti palacii.” And in the presentation of accounts of December 17 of the following year (1348) we find a reference to the painting concerned (pro tabula capelle) (IE 210, fol. 163v). It is of course important to include the eight paintings for the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, paid for on November 29, 1349 (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 260, fol. 162).
56 On March 16, 1346, Bernard Escot, who usually worked with the palace decoration crews, was paid for painting 121 seats at a rate of 2 sous per unit (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 148, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312). On December 18, 1349, Simonet of Lyon was paid for decorating fifty seats, this time at a unit rate of 6 sous (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 260, fol. 171). He also painted two other chairs in April 1351, for 6½ sous each (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 261, fol. 162) and is mentioned again in the entry for July 6 of that year (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 263, fol. 126); another painter performed the same task in November 1352 (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 265, fol. 88v).
57 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 210, fol. 119v, payment of February 19, 1349; see also ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 462, fol. 92v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 408.
58 On March 2, 1350, Michel Hopequin was paid “pro quatuor penumcellis positis in quatuor fenestris magne turris coopertis diversis coloribus et foliis stagni albi, in quolibet penumcello due signa, scilicet quoddam Romane Ecclesie et aliud domini nostri pape etc.” (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 260, fol. 140v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 432). On September 8, 1351, Matteo was paid for having “depicta scuta palatii olim regis de Avinione, quod modo est pape etc.” with two other painters (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 261, fol. 173, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 452).
59 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 117, payment of May 28, 1343, to Francisco Bruni “pro pictura armorum domini nostri factorum in Ponte Sorgie.”
60 ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 450, fol. 26v, payment of January 25, 1353, for work done during the papacy of Clement VI.
61 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 265, fol. 86v, and Coll. 462, fol. 310v: “pro uno quaterno papiri in quo protraxit dictus magister Matheus 28 istorias sancti Roberti mittendas Parisii pro cassa argentea corporis eiusdem sancti.”
62 Julius von Schlosser, “Zur Kenntnis der künstlerischen Überlieferung im späten Mittelalter,” Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 23 (1902): 279–338; Robert W. Scheller, A Survey of Medieval Model Books (Haarlem: Erven F. Bohn, 1963); Scheller, Exemplum: Model-Book Drawings and the Practice of Artistic Transmission in the Middle Ages (ca. 900–ca. 1470) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1995).
63 Jean Wirth, Villard de Honnecourt, architecte du xiii e siècle (Geneva: Droz, 2015).
64 Scheller, Exemplum.
65 Pierluigi Leone De Castris, Simone Martini [2003], trans. Christine Piot (Arles: Actes Sud, 2007).
66 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 35, “Painting,” trans. H. Rackam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), § 15–16 (pp. 271–73) and § 67–68 (pp. 311–13). However, these passages in Pliny do not really develop this idea in any precise way—further evidence of the historical importance of Petrarch’s thinking.
67 Petrarch, Remedies for Fortune Fair or Foul, trans. Conrad H. Rawski (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 1:131: “cum praeterea pene ars una vel, si plures, unus, ut diximus, fons artium, graphidem dico.”
68 Baldassarre Castiglione, Il cortigiano, ed. Amedeo Quondam (Milan: Mondadori, 2002), 1:88: “e benché diversa sia la pittura dalla statuaria, pure l’una e l’altra da un medesimo fonte, che è il buon disegno, nasce.” The Book of the Courtier, trans. Leonard Eckstein Opdyke (London: Duckworth, 1902), 66 [translation modified].
69 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 210, fol. 119v; see also Coll. 462, fol. 92v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 408: “Computus domini Mathei Iohaneti pictoris de expensis per eum factis pro 2 cathedris per eum pictis et deauratis pro papa una cum quibusdam aliis operariis sive pictoribus: sibi deberi tam pro dictis suis quam pro dictis aliorum operariorum sive pictorum, qui operati fuerunt in dictis cathedris deaurandis et pingendis, in universo, prout in libro suo rationum clarius et latius continetur, 38 lb. 16 s. Pro gippo posito in dictis cathedris, 7 s. 6 d.; pro lignis et cola, 10 s.; pro ovis, 2 s. 6 d.; pro bolo armeno, 1 s.; pro coloribus smaltorum et lapide smalti, 12 s.; pro vernice et oleo seminis lini, 1 s.; pro stagno albo, 1 s. 4 d.; pro argento, 1 s. 3 d.; pro 738 peciis auri fini empti a Nerio, batitore, 20 lb. 13 s. 6 d., pro 240 peciis auri fini de Florentia, 4 lb. 16 s., in summa 55 fl. 2 s. 1 d.”
70 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 260, fol. 162; see also Coll. 462, fol. 154v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 432 (excerpt).
71 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 260, fol. 173; see also Coll. 462, fol. 157v.
72 For example, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 201, fol. 41: “expense facte per stagiis pictorum portandi et reportandi in mensis septembris anno 43. Die lune prima septembris pro 7 manobris qui fuerunt pro stagiis pictorum portandi de tinello domini nostri in fustaria, vocantur Johannes Pascal, Stephanus Pascal, Johannes Faia, Petrus Bocel, Petrus Marti, Matheus Hugader, Johannes Seguelors, quisque lucratur 20 d., acendi 11 s. 8 d. Die veneris 5 septembris pro 9 manobris qui fuerunt pro stagiis pictorum reportandi ad fustaria vocantur etc.”
73 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 133, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 311: “Bertrando Coterii, facto foro cum eodem de faciendis stageriis dicti tinelli pro dicta pictura facienda, pro labore suo dumtaxat 15 fl.” (This text refers back to the preceding part of the account, concerning Matteo and work in the banqueting hall).
74 Heinrich Denifle, “Ein Quaternus rationum des Malers Matteo Giovannetti von Viterbo in Avignon,” Archiv für Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters 4 (1888): 602–30, here pp. 629 and 630. Perhaps the presentation of accounts of January 3, 1346 (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 140v; excerpt published in Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312; see also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 234, fol. 92) foreshadows this development: though it mentions no specific category, it does indicate payment for ladders (pro scalis) and nails.
75 Denifle, “Ein Quaternus rationum,” 628–30.
76 Payment of December 8, 1345, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 138; see also IE 234, fol. 89v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312: “Andree de Lucha pro 65 lb. de viridi terra per eum venditis pro opere picture pape, 3 s. 4 d. pro lb., 10 lb. 16 s. 8 d. monete parve, presente magistro Matteo Iohaneti pictore, qui eamdem per nos emi consulevit, in 9 fl. 8 d. parve.”
77 Payment of January 3, 1346, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 140v; see also IE 234, fol. 92, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312: “item computat solvisse pro certis coloribus per ipsum emptis, preter colores receptos in camera.”
78 Denifle, “Ein Quaternus rationum,” 628–29.
79 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 152 (this specification is not mentioned by Schäfer).
80 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 143; see also Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 143.
81 See the following payments: August 25, 1344, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 216, fol. 139v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 179; February 11, 1345, fol. 151v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 278; April 12, 1345, fol. 155v; July 8, 1345, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 131, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 311; August 26, 1345, fol. 133v; see also ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 234, fol. 84v, IE 239, fol. 53, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 311; March 17, 1346, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 148, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312; August 30, 1346, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 247, fol. 112v; see also IE 243, fol. 128v; IE 248, fol. 127v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 350.
82 For the notebook, see Denifle, “Ein Quaternus rationum,” 629: “pro stangno deaurato” and “pro 75 stagneolis auri fini.” For the presentations of accounts, see, for example, the entry regarding the two papal cathedrae of February 19, 1349, ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 462, fol. 92v: “pro 738 peciis auri fini and pro 240 peciis auri fini de florentia.
83 Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy; Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field [1992], trans. Susan Emanuel (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), 312–21.
84 Payment of November 12, 1344, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 216, fol. 147; see also Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 278, where the date indicated is November 14.
85 Payments of August 5, 1343, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 129, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 254; and September 22 and 27, 1343, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 220, fol. 132v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 254.
86 Payments of September 1 and 4, 1344, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 216, fol. 140.
87 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 216, fol. 145v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 278.
88 ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 142v, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312.
89 Payment of November 12, 1344, cited in note 84 above. Matteo was also consulted for a purchase of green clay (cited in note 76 above).
90 Payment of November 21, 1345, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 242, fol. 137v; see also IE 234, fol. 89, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 312: “pro pictura parietum magni tinelli, … 119 fl. detractis 11 fl. quos ipse soluit pro 33 lb. de azurio, quos tradidimus sibi de thesauro Ecclesie.”
91 Payment of September 6, 1347, ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 250, fol. 113, and Schäfer, Die Ausgaben, 379. The operation was repeated on October 24 of the same year, this time for 8¾ pounds (ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 250, fol. 120v).
92 ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 462, fols. 92v, 154v, and 213.
93 Denifle, “Ein Quaternus rationum”; Eileen Kane, “A Document for the Fresco Technique of Matteo Giovannetti in Avignon,” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 64 (1975): 369–78. I try to take Kane’s thinking further here.
94 Étienne Anheim, “Un évangéliste sur les bords du Rhône. La figure de saint Jean à la cour pontificale d’Avignon au milieu du xive siècle,” in Humanistes, clercs et laïcs dans l’Italie du xiii e au début du xvi e siècle, ed. Cécile Caby and Rosa Maria Dessì (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), 175–226.
95 Thanks to Philippe Bernardi for his suggestion on this point.
96 The advances indicated in Matteo’s notebook are also found in the Curia’s registers; ASV, Cam. Ap., IE 245.
97 Étienne Anheim and Valérie Theis, “Fixation et standardisation des rémunérations à la cour pontificale dans la première moitié du xive siècle,” in Rémunérer le travail au Moyen Âge. Pour une histoire sociale du salariat, ed. Patrice Beck, Philippe Bernardi, and Laurent Feller (Paris: Picard, 2014), 365–95.
98 Philippe Bernardi, Maître, valet et apprenti au Moyen Âge. Essai sur une production bien ordonnée (Toulouse: Presses du Mirail, 2009).
99 Patrick Boucheron, Le pouvoir de bâtir. Urbanisme et politique édilitaire à Milan, xiv e–xv e siècles (Rome: École française de Rome, 1998), particularly the second section, “Acteurs et agents de la politique ducale de grands travaux,” 245–379.
100 Bruno Zanardi, Giotto e Pietro Cavallini. La questione di Assisi e il cantiere medievale di pittura a fresco (Milan: Skira, 2002); Serena Romano, La O di Giotto (Milan: Electa, 2008).
101 Enaud, “Les fresques du Palais des papes d’Avignon”; Kane, “A Document for the Fresco Technique.”
102 Donatella Toracca, “Sinopie et dessins de Matteo Giovannetti (1344–1353),” in Monument de l’histoire. Construire, reconstruire le Palais des papes, xiv e–xx e siècle, ed. Dominique Vingtain (Paris/Avignon: Rmn-Gp/Palais des papes, 2002), 77–80.
103 Anheim, “Financement et organisation des chantiers de peinture pontificaux.”
104 Ibid.
105 Enaud, “Les fresques du Palais des papes d’Avignon.”
106 Zanardi, Giotto e Pietro Cavallini.
107 On the iconography at the Palais des papes, in addition to the works by Castelnuovo, Laclotte and Thiébaut, and Vingtain cited above, see Anheim, “La ‘Chambre du cerf’”; Anheim, “Un évangéliste sur les bords du Rhône”; and Anheim, “Le rinceau et l’oiseau. À propos du décor de la chambre de Benoît XII au Palais des papes d’Avignon,” in Les vecteurs de l’idéel. La légitimité implicite, ed. Jean-Philippe Genet (Paris/Rome: Publications de la Sorbonne/École française de Rome, 2015), 359–74.
108 Anheim, “Un évangéliste sur les bords du Rhône.”
109 Enaud, “Les fresques du Palais des papes d’Avignon”; Kane, “A Document for the Fresco Technique.”
110 See, for example, the Italian mason Barthélemy Guersi, highly successful in fifteenth-century Aix-en-Provence due to his mastery of a new technique for building cellars and his entrepreneurial talent for organization, studied by Philippe Bernardi in “Essai, tâtonnement et pari : le rôle de l’individu dans l’innovation,” Médiévales 39 (2000): 14–29.
111 ASV, Cam. Ap., Coll. 450, fol. 26v.
112 It is hard to reconstruct all of Matteo’s activity; we have virtually no trace of his work on wooden panels, for example. The three works we do have in that category (altarpiece sections) are thought of as private commissions; see Laclotte and Thiébaut, L’École d’Avignon, 166–69 and 178–79. However, that claim cannot be demonstrated, and the rest of his known corpus consists of papal commissions.
113 Castelnuovo, Un peintre italien.
114 See Denifle, “Ein Quaternus rationum,” 630, for the accounting calculations.
115 Antoninus of Florence, Summa Theologica, circa 1450, vol. 3, tit. 8, sec. 4, chap. 9: “Pictores non solum secundum quantitatem laboris, sed magis secundum industriam et majorem peritiam artis, de salario suo artificii magis vel minus rationabiliter postulant sibi solvi.” Quoted in Creighton E. Gilbert, “The Archbishop on the Painters of Florence, 1450,” Art Bulletin 41 (1959): 75–87, here p. 76.
116 This is a reference to Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre, Enrichissement. Une critique de la marchandise (Paris: Gallimard, 2017).
This is a translation of: Un atelier italien à la cour d'Avignon: Matteo Giovannetti, peintre du pape Clément VI (1342-1352)