Skillful neo-Gothic copy after the Grimani Breviary, a witness to “manuscript painting in the modern age.”

Father of Alberto Prosdocimi (1852-1923), known for his scenic views of Venetian architecture and portraits, Germano was especially known for his copies of miniatures in the celebrated Grimani Breviary. A masterpiece of Flemish illumination by Gerard Horenbout, Alexander and Simon Bening, and others, the Grimani Breviary is housed in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (MS lat. I, 99=2138) in Venice. It dates 1520, when it was purchased by Cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461-1530).

Known as a “Reproduktionszeicher,” Germano mastered stone lithography and was involved in several publications, including those by Léon Curmer of the Grimani Breviary (Paris, 1864). In the 1850s he made facsimiles from the Grimani Breviary for such clients as Baroness Ottillie van Goethe of Weimar and the Erzherzogin Charlotte of Austria. He exhibited some of them at the Academia in Venice. Many others are known (see for example, Voelkle, 2023, nos. 51-54, now in a private collection in Edinburgh; Hindman et al, 2001, p. 168), although there is still no Census of the surviving examples.

Although unsigned, this miniature of Saint Michael the Archangel bears all the earmarks of the copies painted by Germano Prosdocimi. In an age prior to the development of mechanical methods for high-quality color reproduction, his Grimani copies were highly valued by manuscript connoisseurs. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, for example, owned several, as did various princes and princesses in continental Europe.

Provenance
(1) France, Private Collection.

(2) Private Collection, USA.

LITERATURE
Unpublished. On Prosdocimi, see Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 27, p. 423, Leipzig, 1954; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculptures, dessinateurs et graveurs, Paris, 1966, VII, p. 36; Andrea Lermer,“Eine verhinderte Publikation zum Dogenpalast in Venedig: Pietro Selvaticos und Germano Prosdocimis Arbeiten fur die Monumenti Artistici e Storici delle Province Venete,“ Studi Veneziani 41 (2001), pp. 281-293; On the Grimani Breviary; Scato de Vries and Salomone Morpurgo. Le Bréviaire Grimani, Leiden, 1903-1908, pp. 44-47 ; and on neo-Gothic manuscript illumination, Sandra Hindman et al., Manuscript Illumination in the Modern Age, Recovery and Reconstruction, Evanston, Illinois, 2001; William M. Voelkle, Holy Hoaxes: A Beautiful Deception. Celebrating William M. Voelkle’s Collecting, Paris, New York, and Chicago [2023], pp. 168, fig.

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.