A striking late Duecento cutting from an illuminated Gradual influenced by Cimabue and early Giottesque naturalism.
 
155 mm × 111 mm, single cutting on parchment from an illuminated Gradual, verso preserving portions of two four-line red staves with square musical notation and fragments of Gothic
textualis script in dark brown ink, with later pencil annotations identifying the subject, ONE HISTORIATED INITIAL ‘D’ formed of red tendrils with grey grounds filled with delicate white filigree, set against a blue field with gold ornament and bezants, the initial divided into two narrative registers depicting three episodes from the Life of Saint Lucy: below, the Mystic Marriage of Saint Lucy and Christ; above, scenes of her martyrdom including her resistance to fire and death by stabbing. Traces of mounting, minor staining, and surface wear, else in good condition.
 
This historiated initial D, excised from a Gradual, originally introduced the Introit “Dilexisti justitiam et odisti iniquitatem” for the Mass of Saint Lucy (13 December). The illuminator ingeniously divides the confined space of the initial into two registers to depict three episodes from the Life of Saint Lucy. In the lower register, Lucy is shown in her Mystic Marriage with Christ, the two figures joining hands between architectural towers. Above, two scenes from her martyrdom are represented: at left, Lucy miraculously resists the fire prepared for her execution, while at right she receives the fatal wound to her neck. The restrained palette of mauve, grey, blue, and brilliant red, combined with the elongated figures and expressive gestures, reveals an artist working at the transition between late Romanesque traditions and the new naturalism introduced into northern Italy by Cimabue and later Giotto.
 
The decorative vocabulary of the initial, particularly the red letter form, white filigree infill, and scrolling ornament, closely relates to the series of choirbooks produced for the Cathedral of Imola in the final quarter of the thirteenth century. Comparable features appear in other Emilian illuminations of the period, particularly an initial ‘S’ with Saint Anthony Abbot and Didymus the Blind (Christie’s 2016, lot 8), which displays a similarly Cimabuesque figural style and decorative system of white filigree scrolls, discs, and cross motifs. The present cutting was likely produced by a workshop active in Emilia-Romagna, perhaps near Imola, c. 1290–1300. The unusual emphasis placed on Lucy’s mystical union with Christ, rather than solely on her martyrdom, may suggest that the original Gradual was created for a female religious community, where such themes were especially favored among Dominican and Carthusian nuns at the end of the thirteenth century.
 
Provenance
(1) Private Collection, Germany
 
(2) Hargesheimer, Düsseldorf, Mittelalterliche Miniaturen & Buchmalerei, 21 March 2015, lot 27.
 
(3) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 2474
 
Parent manuscript and sister leaves
The parent manuscript and sister leaves are presently unknown.
 
LITERATURE
Published: Hargesheimer, Mittelalterliche Miniaturen & Buchmalerei: Eine Privatsammlung, 21 March 2015, lot 27; Gaudenz Freuler with Georgi Parpulov, The McCarthy Collection, Vol I, Italian and Byzantine Miniatures, London, 2018, pp. 138–39, no. 43; Related literature: Franco Faranda, ed., Cor unum et anima una. Corali Miniati della Chiesa di Imola, Faenza 1994, pp. 103–107, 177–186.
 
We are grateful to Peter Kidd for permission to quote from his catalogue for this entry, and we thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.
 
The Robert McCarthy Collection.