Page of a choirbook

There were cultural connections between Siena and northern Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century which were made more substantial by the presence in Siena of Liberale da Verona and Girolamo da Cremona, two highly talented manuscript illuminators who worked on a large number of liturgical books for the Opera del Duomo during the 1460s and 1470s. Their work provided a graphic demonstration of the daring feats of pictorial illusionism and decorative ornamentation that were characteristic of north Italian art at that period. They also introduced Sienese painters to the luminous effects common in the work of such painters as Andrea Mantegna, as seen in the gleaming pearls and inset jewels that decorate this page of a choirbook depicting the Resurrection of Christ and four roundels depicting events after the Resurrection. The choirbook was illuminated by this two artists.