Description
3 miniatures on cuttings, (a) a large initial 'C', 166mm. by 157mm., in brightly coloured acanthus leaves, enclosing the Nativity in the foreground with Joseph and the Virgin kneeling in the stable next to a donkey and a cow, all before the Child who lies in a basket, in the background a shepherd with his sheep as the angel descends towards him, all on burnished gold ground with brick-work effect picked out in brown paint (now smudged in places), laid down on card, but with remnants of 6 lines of text on verso, probablyVerona, first half of the sixteenth century; (b) an initial 'C', 95mm. by 83mm., in white and blue terminating in acanthus leaves (perhaps opening the hymn 'Crudelis herodes ...' from second vespers at epiphany), enclosing the Adoration of the Magi, with the three kings in elaborate robes before the Virgin and Child (both of whom have burnished gold haloes) as one king kisses the foot of the Child and another points to the heavens, presumably at the star, all on blue ground with orange frame, remnants of 3 lines on verso with music on a 4-line red stave, excellent condition, Florence, c.1370; (c) an initial 'D', 70mm. by 73mm., in coloured bands terminating at the top and bottom in medieval jewels, enclosing a kneeling figure of David, hands clasped together in prayer, all before a wide open grassy landscape with deer, birds and a medieval walled town, all on burnished gold ground, now trimmed and placed within the border of another leaf (probably from the same manuscript supplying a border of interlocking coloured foliage, bezants, two birds and two naked human figures, one of whom picks fruit from the foliage, the other playing the bagpipes, some very minor rubbing and flaking to parts of scene, and greater scuffing to lower edge of cutting, otherwise good, Florence, late fifteenth century; all framed separately
Catalogue Note
Item (a) here is by an artist very close to, or perhaps by Girolamo Dai Libri, an artist active in Verona from 1474-1555 (see P. Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, items 67-8, pp. 138-41). He was born into a family of illuminators and his father illuminated choirbooks for the principal churches and monasteries of Verona, including the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria in Organo in 1491-1502. Giralomo is first named in a payment record dated 1495 from this Benedictine community. The miniature here is in his mature style and must be from the first half of the sixteenth century. Item (b) is by an artist in the circle of Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, who was active as a painter and illuminator in Florence in the period 1339-99. He was a Camaldolese brother at the monastery of S Maria degli Angeli and subsequently the prior of the community. The importance of the scriptorium was noted by Vasari in his Vita of Lorenzo Monaco, and the entry of this figure into the priory in 1391 completed a triumvirate of painters, Don Silvestro, the eldest painter in the group, Don Simone Camaldolese and Don Lorenzo, that constituted the most important late medieval school of painters in Florence. Item (c) is attributable to the illuminator Francesco Roselli, (1448-c.1508) who was active in Florence. It is doubtless from a Psalter and the initial 'D' may have opened Psalm 140, 'Domine clamavi ad te'.
From a private collection in Canada.
