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All Saints, an initial on a leaf from an illuminated missal, manuscript on vellum [Italy (probably Siena), c.1460-70]
Description
- Vellum
Provenance
Provenance: from a Missal made for a bishop, with his arms, per pale azure and or, an eagle displayed with two heads dimidiated of the same, augmented in fess with an escutcheon gules and a cross gemelle or. The manuscript was sold by the Andulusia Foundation, Milledgeville, Georgia, at Christie's, New York, 16 May 1986, lot 213; afterwards Ferrini, cat. 1 (1987), no.45, and then broken up. The present leaf was fol.189.
Catalogue Note
The manuscript is attributed to the great Sienese artist and panel painter, Sano di Pietro (1405-1481) and his workshop. The finely modelled faces and crane-like birds with their riot of colour and gold are redolent of his work, and the closest parallels are to a Gradual illuminated by him for the Piccolomini family (Siena, Piccolomini Library, cod.27.11; dating to 1463-72), and this may have been executed around the same time.