Art Registry:
Gothic and Early Renaissance (ca. 1300-1500)

Anonymous, French School. 14th century

Title: Digging for Truffles (book illustration)
Source: Physics by Aristotle
Medium: Vellum
Mushroom description: Initial letter “H” shows man digging, apparently for truffles
Location: Bibliotheque Mazarin, Paris
Web: The Bridgeman Art Library

Anonymous, French or English School. Ca. 1395-1397

Anonymous, German. 15th -16th century?

Anonymous, Italian School. 14th century

Anonymous, Italian. 14th century?

Anonymous, Italian School. 15th century

Title: The Vegetable Market
Medium: Fresco
Mushroom description: Vendor and customer, with a basket that may contain mushrooms and holding what may be a stylized mushroom
Location: Castello di Issogne, Val d’Aosta, Italy
Web: The Bridgeman Art Library

Anonymous, Italian School. 15th century

Title: Gathering Truffles (book illustration)
Source: From Tacuinum sanitatis: Terratufule, transcription from 11th century. Arabic work, Kitab Taqwim as-asihha by Ibn Butlan (11th Century); also attributed to Albucassis or Elluchasem Eliminthar
Medium: Vellum
Mushroom description: Man picking truffles from the surface of ledges (similar to Anonymous, Italian School, 14th century)
Location: Bibliotheque Municipale, Rouen, France
Reference: Bovey, A. Tacuinum sanitatis: an early Renaissance guide to health. London: Sam Fogg, 2005
Web: The Bridgeman Art Library

Anonymous, Spanish School. Late 13th - early 14th century

Title: Madonna with Child 75 x 25 x 18 cm. (sculpture)
Location: Sta. Maria Church, Orduña, Spain
Mushroom description: A sitting Madonna holding the Christ child on her lap holds an object on the right hand that looks like a robust stipitate mushroom
Reference: Portilla, MJ. Catalogo Monumental de la Diócesis de Vitoria. Vol. VI. Vitoria: Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Vitoria. 1988.
Note: Luis Montes reports that a similar statue is in the portico of the Colegiata de Toro (Zamora, Spain) but the mushroom-like object cannot be interpreted with assurance because of its unique rectangular scales

Bataille, Nicholas. French. 1363-1400. Hennequin de Bruges (called Jean de Bandol). Flemish, Brugge

Title: The Black Horse and Famine panel of The Apocalpyse 14th century
Medium: Tapestry. The entire tapestry is 140 meters long.
Note: Bataille did the weaving and de Bruges the painting. Begun around 1375 and completed in 7 years.
Location: Angers Castle, France
Mushroom description: Clump of three mushrooms, perhaps Agaricus campestris in middle foreground.
Web: http://architecture.relig.free.fr/images/apo/angers_sceau3.jpg

Bouts, Dieric. Flemish. Haarlem ca. 1410/20-Louvain 1475

Title: Last Supper
Medium: Triptych , right panel. 1464/67
Location: Louvain St. Peter’s Church, Louvain, Belgium
Mushroom description: Breads on goblet, in the shape of mushrooms, the so–called Angel bread, possibly Amanita muscaria
Reference: Alpatow. Geschichte der Kunst II, Tafel IIIa; Bauer et al. Der Fliegenpilz, S. 111 (Auschnitt, black & white). Cologne. 1991. Pacht. Altniederländische Malerei. Farbtafel 11 (in color) and p. 105, figure 84, black & white. Munich. 1994

Cornhuse, J. van der. Before 1500

Title: World Judgment (Weltgericht)
Location: Stadtmuseum, Brugge, Belgium
Mushroom description: Marasmius sp., Coprinus cf. comatus and Lycoperdon sp.
Reference: Mentioned by S. Killermann, 1927

Lippi Filippino. Italian. Prato 1457–Florence 1504

Title: Saint Jerome’s penance
Medium: Tempera on wood, 13 x 71 cm.
Location: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Painted around 1485 for the Badia, Fiorentina. At the Uffizi since 1935.
Mushroom description: Indistinct mushrooms in foreground
Web:Scala Archives

Mantegna Andrea. Italian. Vicenza 1431-1506

Testard, Robinet. French, active 1470-1523

— A —
Source: Book of Simple Medicines by Matthaeus Platearius (died c. 1161)
Medium: Vellum
Location: National Library, St. Petersburg, Russia
Reference: Platearius, Mattthaeus. The Book of Simple Medicin. Barcelona: Moleiro Editor, S.A. 2006
Web: National Library of Russia
— B —
Title: Field scene
Ms. Fr. Fv VI #1 fol. 168v.
Mushroom description: Man tilling soil with elephant, deer, and beehive. Three campanulate stylized light-colored mushrooms on a mound
Web: The Bridgeman Art Library
— C —
Title: Hazelnut bush and cherry tree
Ms Fr. Fv#1 fol. 162 r.
Mushroom description: Three campanulate mushrooms sticking out of trunk of hazelnut bush on right
Web: The Bridgeman Art Library
— D —
Title: Three Bushes
Fr. F. VI#1 fol. 163v.
Mushroom description: Bush on left has four clumps of perhaps jelly fungi
Web: The Bridgeman Art Library

Uccello, Paolo. Italian. Florence, 1397-1475

Title: The Hunt in the Forest ca. 1470
Medium: Oil on wood panel, 177 x 73 cm.
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
Mushroom description: The floor of the forest contains some 300-600 white stalked specimens that may well be mushrooms. Some are in circles
Reference: Whistler, C. The Hunt in the Forest, 2001. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum. Schaechter, E. “Mushrooms” in an early Renaissance painting: Uccello’s ”The Hunt in the Forest. 2005. Mycologist 19: 150-151.
Web: Olga's Gallery

Van der Weyden, Rogier. Flemish. Tournay 1399/1400-Bruxelles 1464

Title: The Birth of Christ. Middle panel of the Middelburg Altar (= Bladelin Altar). 1445
Medium: Oil
Location: Berlin Kulturforum, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
Mushroom description: Group of Coprinus sp. on a thatched roof
Reference: Pächt, Altniederländische Melerei. Munich. 1994. Gemäldegalerie Berlin. 200 Meisterwerke, Berlin. 1998
Web: Web Gallery of Art