Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

Poignant and colorful initial from a Northern Italian Choir Book by an accomplished illuminator, still to be identified.

145 x 179 mm. Partial leaf, trimmed around the initial ‘C’, ruled on the verso for at least two lines of script and two staves of four red lines (rastrum: 33 mm), written in a rounded gothic bookhand, square notation, rubrics in red, one-line calligraphic penwork initial touched with yellow, TWO-LINE HISTORIATED INITIAL in pink, red, blue, and green, on dark fainted marble ground, highlighted with liquid gold (slight soiling, else in excellent condition).

This remarkable initial comes from an as-yet unidentified Choir book that was most likely illuminated in Northern Italy or Piedmont around 1500. The size of this two-line initial suggests that the volume was particularly large. The verso includes the beginning of Psalm 6, “Domine ne in furore.” This multicolored initial ‘C’, with its pink stem and foliage in red, green, and blue, is placed on a rectangular ground painted in the imitation of marble, highlighted with liquid gold, and framed with black. The pink stem, modelled with a black line, is encircled with five blue or green rings, and extends into blue beads spreading into blue, green, and pink acanthus. The initial depicts a Funeral service: as a priest asperse a dead man lying on his bier, dressed and coiffed as a lawyer, two acolytes hold the cross and candles, while six mourners bear witness to the ceremony. The composition stands out for the painterly modelling of the faces and the successful restitution of depth, as the scene extends into an atmospheric landscape in which a city emerges in the distance.

This exuberant decorated initial demonstrates the composite culture of its illuminator, especially in the suggestive modeling of the faces and remarkable atmospheric landscape that extends in the background. It could have been illuminated in Lombardy or in Piedmont by an artist trained in France or Savoy in the late fifteenth century. The distinctive short canon of the figures, small and rounded heads, and expressive facial features underlined in black, is reminiscent for instance of the miniatures of the Master of George of Challant (1440-1509), governor of the duchy of Astoa, although the palette is less acid and the treatment of the landscape differ (Aosta, Collegiate Church Santi Pietro e Orso, MS 43). Yet the composite culture of this initial also finds comparisons with manuscripts illuminated in Milan around 1500. One such example is a Missale Pontificis in Nativitate Domini (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Borg. Lat. 425), attributed to Fra Antonio da Monza (active Milan, c. 1480-1505), and dated by the inclusion of a portrait of Pope Alexandre VI (1492-1503). Although not by the same hand, the initial of the Nativity presents a comparable exuberant decoration, and encloses short figures set in the foreground of a receding atmospheric landscape, punctuated with slim trees in wash. This initial certainly deserves further study; we have been unable to identify any sister leaves.

Provenance:
(1) Christie's, London, 19 November 2003, lot 11.

(2) Private collection, California, USA, MS 263.

LITERATURE
Published: Christie's, 19 November 2003, lot 11. Further literature on the cited artists, see: Fausta Gualdi Sabatini, "Il 'Missale Pontificis in Nativitate Domini' Borg. Lat. 425 della Biblioteca Vaticana," in La Miniatura Italiana tra Gotico e Renascimento. Atti, Florence, 1985, pp. 719-750; Alessandra Vallet, Il Miniatore di Giorgio di Challant. L'Arte e la vita di un artista itinerante nella regione alpina occidentale alla fine del Medioevo, Aosta, 1999.

Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.