Three cuttings with initials from an illuminated Gradual in Latin, on vellum, [northern Italy (Lombardy or Veneto), c.1470-90]

3 cuttings, (a) large historiated initial ‘K’, 125mm. by 154mm., formed of scrolling acanthus in pink and green on a burnished gold ground, enclosing a delicate and detailed bust-length figure of a tonsured bishop, mouth open in song, on a vivid blue ground; (b) large historiated initial ‘K’, 227mm. by 163mm., formed of scrolling acanthus in pink and green, inscribed with the letters “AVEG” (for Ave Gratia), on a burnished gold ground, enclosing a full-length portrait of the Virgin and Child, the grass with stylised flowers matching the decoration of the initial; and (c) an illuminated initial with a large acanthus-leaf spray enclosing four roundels and a half-length portrait of a saint, 183mm. by 139mm., the initial in blue with scalloping white brushwork on a burnished gold ground, enclosing delicate swirling foliage terminating in angular coloured ivy leaves and circular buds, a larger spray of acanthus leaves reaching above the initial and supporting a half-length warrior-saint who wears fleur-de-lys, holds a sword, a spear and a palm of martyrdom, between two large roundels including St. Barbara and another female saint, and two smaller roundels with naked putti; all 3 cuttings from the same manuscript, remains of text in brown ink with music on a 4-line red stave on all, rastrum: 44mm., small pigment losses and rubbed in places

These three cuttings from a richly illuminated Gradual are from the same manuscript as two others offered by Les Enluminures in 1999 (Cat.8, no.32, also with half-length portraits of tonsured bishops). Item (b) is related to the work of Francesco da Castello, who worked in Lombardy in the early 1470s. His work displays a taste for Gothic art interpreted with decorative flourish. He spent much of his life at the Hungarian court of the great Renaissance king and patron, Matthias Corvinus, but was also responsible for an important series of Lombardic choirbooks, such as those presented to the Cathedral of Lodi by its bishop Carlo Pallavicino in 1495 (Lodi, Civica Bibl. Laudense, MSS.lauden.1-6, and New York, Pierpont Morgan Museum, MSS.682-87). Items (a) and (c) can be linked to the work of the Master of the Psalter G.16.I.I in Vicenza, an artist active in the Veneto (Bauer-Eberhardt, Die Italienischen Miniaturen, 1984, pp.34-42, 133-40).