Pentecost in a large historiated initial on a leaf from an illuminated manuscript Gradual, on vellum [Italy (perhaps the south), late thirteenth century]

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

single leaf, 453mm. by 320mm., with a large initial ‘S’ (opening “Spiritus domini replevit …”, the Introit for the Mass at Pentecost), in orange with white scalloped designs overlaid, enclosing a multitude of saints as divine red rays descend from the starry heavens above and alight on the tops of their heads forming red triangles, all within a deep burgundy frame with black and white penwork picking out straps around the body of the initial, terminating in the border in a single acanthus-leaf with a bezant at its base, 7 lines of text in a fine late gothic bookhand with music on a 4-line red stave, “LXXVI” in alternate red and blue in upper border, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century “891”, “8321” (struck through) next to eighteenth-century “76” in upper right hand corner (the last probably the original folio number), lower corner repaired with pieces of printed text, scuffing to gold and slight cockling, some folds (perhaps from earlier framing), else good condition, gilt frame

Provenance

provenance
From the collection of Robert Lehman (1891-1969; de Ricci, Census II, p.1706, Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, no.39); bought in 1924 from the Kalebdjian brothers, Paris.

Catalogue Note

illumination

This is a fine and notably early example of Italian illumination. Some of the artist’s techniques, such as the use of white lines over blue-grey to depict hair are inherited from the dominant Bolognese style of the period (cf. Italian Illuminated MSS. in the Getty Museum, 2005, p.8), and his long-faced figures share much with the Bolognese-trained artist, Jacobello da Salerno (fl. end of thirteenth century in southern Italy: Nordenfalk, Bokmålningar, 1979, no.18, figs.104-07, pl.IX, and figs.220-21, and Die Handschriften der Sammlung Ludwig, 1979, I, no.VI.1, pp.262-65). However, his bright and bold palette with deep burgundy sets this miniature quite apart.