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Biadaiolo Master
( fl Florence, c. 1325–35). Italian illuminator and painter. He is named from the manuscript known as Il Biadaiolo (Florence, Bib. Medicea-Laurenziana, MS. Tempi 3), which contains nine miniatures, all attributed to him. The text, written by Domenico Lenzi and entitled Specchio umano, documents grain prices and the resulting human consequences for the years 1320 to 1335 in Florence. The biadaiolo, or grain merchant, was an effective witness to this period, which was one of both prosperity and hardship; it was also chronicled by Giovanni Villani (c. 1275–1348). The moralistic overtones of Lenzi’s text are complemented in the miniatures by the depiction of angels and demons, signs that man has little control over events but must react appropriately to them. The Master records the events with much topical detail, and particular care is taken to portray accurately such scenes as the open-air grain market in Piazza Orsanmichele (fol. 79r) and the skylines of Siena and Florence (fols 57v–58r). This pictorial precision, with the Master’s narrative abilities, makes the scenes instructive yet charming. Two paintings are also attributed to the Master: a gabled panel with five scenes (the Virgin and Child with Saints, the Glorification of St Thomas Aquinas, the Nativity, Crucifixion and Last Judgement; 590*428 mm; New York, Met.) and a damaged tabernacle with, on the central panel, the Virgin and Child with Four Saints and Angels (ex-Joseph Lindon Smith priv. col., New York, see Offner and Steinweg, section III/ii/1, pl. XX). Offner considered the Biadaiolo Master to be a product of the ‘miniaturist’ tendency that was fostered by the workshop of PACINO DI BONAGUIDA, and he noted the closeness of the Master’s style to that of the MASTER OF THE DOMINICAN EFFIGIES (see below). Boskovits (Offner and Steinweg, III/ix), however, concluded that the works attributed to the Biadaiolo Master, datable to c. 1325–35, should be considered instead as the early production of the Master of the Dominican Effigies, whose documented career spans the period c. 1328–50.
Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family
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