Christ Blessing Three Young Men, a historiated initial from a Choirbook, on vellum [Italy (Siena), c.1340-50]

a cutting, 138mm. by 133mm., large initial ‘M’ formed of fleshy acanthus in blue, light pink, orange and green with burnished gold baubles set against a blue ground within a profile frame in green, light pink and soft yellow, enclosing Christ blessing three young men against a dull-gold ground, Christ standing to the left with both hands raised before the three young men to the right, who kneel with their hands crossed in front of their chests, the reverse with two 4-line red staves with music and text, rastrum 34mm., small areas of pigment losses, otherwise in very good condition, elaborate nineteenth- or twentieth-century frame

(1) Colonel Sir George Holford (1860-1926), Equerry-in-Waiting successively to the Duke of Clarence, the Prince of Wales, King Edward, and Queen Alexandra, and Extra Equerry to George V, as well as one of the first great collectors of cuttings from illuminated manuscripts. His catalogue: R.H. Berenson, The Holford Collection, 1927, I., p.16 (no.7), pl.VI; and sold in our rooms, 12 July 1927, lot 5 (illustrated), for £160.

(2) A.R.H. Mann; sold in our rooms, 11 April 1961, lot 76 (illustrated), to Dr. H.J. Bein.

illumination

The imagery of this rare scene is drawn from the Prayer of the Three Holy Children in the Book of Daniel. The three young men, Ananias, Azarias and Misael (also known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) had been cast by the Persian king Nebuchadnezzar into a fiery furnace for refusing to worship a golden idol, but they were protected by an Angel of the Lord, and here are shown being blessed by Christ. In liturgical practice, the event is seen to prefigure the Resurrection, thus its inclusion in the canon.

The finely detailed and highly decorative style of the initial bears close resemblance to the work of Niccolò di Ser Sozzo (cf. The Robert Lehman Collection, IV, 1997, pp.122-6; and La miniature senese, 2002, pp.303-14). He is generally recognised as the preeminent illuminator in Siena in the middle of the fourteenth century. The reconstruction of his work is based on a signed miniature of the Assumption (Siena, Archivio di Stato, MS. Capitoli 2) and a polyptych in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena, jointly signed by him and Lucca di Tommè. Only in 1363 does Niccolò’s name appear in the register of the painters’ guild, but that same year, on 15 June, his burial is recorded in the Necrologio of San Domenico. His style is recognisable in the present miniature by the fluid forms and subtle, harmonious chromatic effects, and also notable are the pale faces with softly powdered cheeks. Another cutting with the blessed Virgin Mary, sold at Christie’s, 2 June 2004, lot 4, is very close in style and may be from the same parent manuscript.