thegetty:

Painting as a form of adaptation?

Depicted here at the desk is Geremia da Montagnone, the author of the text this illumination accompanies. This depiction is totally imaginative and reveals the creativity of the artist.

“I love this manuscript because the illuminators imbued their ‘portraits’ with the kind of originality that a movie director has when translating a book to the big screen. 

It’s similar to Peter Jackson’s imaginative representation of the dwarves in The Hobbit, as Tolkien didn’t give much description to the characters.”

–Our manuscripts curator of the upcoming show Renaissance Splendors of the Northern Italian Courts

Compendium moralium notabilium, early 15th century, Cristoforo Cortese, illuminator and Novella Master, illuminator. J. Paul Getty Museum.