Elogium on Giangaleazzo Visconti by Pietro da Castellato

The picture shows a page from the Eulogy for Giangaleazzo Visconti (ms. 5888, fol. 7).

Michelino’s work, closely related to similar art at the Valois courts in France, had obvious appeal for patrons like the Visconti, with their dynastic ambitions and royal marriage alliances. The opening page of the Visconti genealogy from the Eulogy for Giangaleazzo Visconti lines up profile images inspired by Greco-Roman coins and medals to trace the Visconti lineage from its legendary origins in the marriage of the Trojan prince Anchises and the goddess Venus, performed by Jupiter. The mythic couple and Jupiter appear at the top of the manuscript, depicted, in Michelino’s refined manner, as contemporary aristocrats; the same delicacy informs the Roman profiles of the Visconti. These antique references - evidence of humanist activity at the Visconti court - are deftly integrated, through Michelino’s deceptively casual manner, into a medieval legend.