Christ Blessing, a historiated initial from a Choirbook, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy (Siena), c.1310-20]

a cutting, 117mm. by 111mm., historiated initial ‘E’ in light pink on a blue ground, enclosing the bust of Christ dressed in red with a blue coat, his right hand raised in blessing and his left holding a book, with a cruciform halo, shown in the upper half of the letter in a yellow frame, the lower half filled with sprouting acanthus in blue with orange, light pink and soft green terminals and gold bezants, the reverse with two 4-line red staves with music and text, rastrum 30mm., the illumination slightly rubbed with pigment losses affecting mostly the figure of Christ and the yellow frame, in good condition, the reverse inscribed “le Docteur Pozzi” in black ink in a nineteenth-century hand, and with the inventory code ‘07-232’ in pencil, remains of paper stuck to the corners at top

The present cutting is related to a group of miniatures which until recently were associated with the Sienese painter Memmo di Filippuccio, father of the better known Lippo Memmi (G. Previtali, ‘Il possible Memmo di Filippuccio’, Paragone, 155, 1962, pp.3-11). Stylistic analysis suggests that some of these works were created by an independent artist, the Master of the Massa Marittima Choirbooks, named after one of his key works, the series of Antiphonaries for the Cathedral of Massa Marittima (A. Labriola in La miniatura senese. 1270-1420, 2002, esp. pp.281-8). The delicate and soft modelling of Christ’s face and the almond-shaped dark shaded eyes are characteristic for his work.