Description
single leaf, 515mm. by 372mm., with a very large initial 'D' in purple and green acanthus-leaves curled around purple bars heightened with lighter shaded penwork and large pink medieval jewels with realistic pearls at their corners, enclosing David with his psaltery seated on an ornamental throne with marble pilasters, on top of a number of crowned kings in a grassy landscape with rocks and winding paths and a wide blue sky, all set on a vast square burnished gold ground, with a full border of green, blue and purple acanthus-leaf sprays enclosing areas of burnished gold, pairs of putti, human-headed green dragons and human masks set between overflowing horns or on top of pillars, these borders enclosing eight smaller miniatures, those of the evangelists at the corners, the Virgin and Child and a bishop-saint at the top and bottom, and two Dominican saints (probably SS. Thomas Aquinas and Dominic) in laurel wreaths on the left and right, seven lines of ornamental initials, rubrics in red, 14 lines of main text on verso, gold scuffed and crackled in places, some flaking to areas of miniatures and ink, trimmed at outer edge with loss of a few millimetres of the border decoration, else good condition, mounted on card
Provenance
provenance
From the collection of Robert Lehman (1891-1969; de Ricci, Census II, p.1711 and Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, no.51 with full-page illustration), a member of the Lehman banking dynasty, and head of the Lehman Brothers investment bank; acquired from Bruscoli, Florence, in 1924.
Catalogue Note
illumination
This is a sumptuous leaf with eight miniatures arranged around a vast historiated initial, itself the size of a small panel painting, all set within a cornucopia of gold and Renaissance ornaments. Palladino notes similarities between the present leaf and miniatures in the Graduals of the Cathedral of Cesena (Palladino, p.104, following M.F. Cucciomini, 'La serie dei corali del Duomo nella miniatura' in Corali miniati del quattrocento nella Biblioteca Malatestiana, 1989, pp.121-25 and 130-33), and postulates that this leaf may be a remnant of a lost Psalter from the same series.
