Saint John the Baptist with the Lamb of God, large historiated initial cut from an illuminated manuscript choirbook on vellum

Estimate

2,000 - 3,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

a cutting, 140mm. by 135mm., a large initial ‘E’ (perhaps the antiphon ‘Elizabeth Zacharie …’ which opens Lauds on the feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, 24 June), enclosing a full-length standing figure of John bearded and full-face pointing to the Agnus Dei which he holds in his left hand, painted in colours with liquid and burnished gold on a blue ground with white tracery within a flamboyant leafy initial in lush colours on a burnished gold panel, verso with part of text “[tam]quam sponsus” and music on a 4-line red stave, some wear and rubbing, a central tear, cut to shape, in an old mount

Catalogue Note

An old note on the mount records that the cutting was brought back from Spain in the Peninsular War by a sergeant in the Twelfth Lancers. The regiment served throughout the War, 1811-14, and took part in the Battle of Vittoria in 1813. The style of the initial is extremely close to that of a series of cuttings now in the Vatican with one in the Free Library of Philadelphia, attributed to the Sienese illuminator, Memmo di Filippuccio, documented 1288-1324; cf. C.B. Strehlke in Leaves of Gold, ed. J.R. Tanis, 2001, pp.168-70, no.57.