A Bishop Saint, historiated initial from a Choirbook, in Latin [Italy, Lombardy (Pavia), c.1500]

cutting, 85x90mm, vellum, initial ‘S’, reverse with remains of one line of text and music on a four-line red stave, rastrum 42mm, slight cracking and some rubbing to the gold leaf, cut to shape, framed  

This illumination has been published as the work of the MASTER OF THE GRADUALS OF SAN SALVATORE IN PAVIA by Pier Luigi Mulas (‘Le Maître des Graduels de San Salvatore de Pavie’, in Quand la peinture était dans les livres, 2007, pp.223-33, esp.p.223, and ‘I Corali di San Sisto’, in I corali benedettini di San Sisto a Piacenza, 2011, pp. 45-66, esp.p.57, fig.15). The artist was named after two Choirbooks (Pavia, Museo Civico, MSS 544 and 545) which he illuminated for the monastery of San Salvatore in Pavia. He worked not only as an illuminator but also as a panel painter. The calm and thoughtful expression of the Bishop Saint reveals the strong influence of Vincenzo Foppa (1430-1515/6), one of the most prominent Lombard painters. Another initial with another bishop saint, painted by the same artist and from the same manuscript was offered by S. Hindman, Medieval & Renaissance Miniature Painting, 1988, no.17; subsequently Maggs, European Bulletin No.18, 1993, no.16. He also participated in the illumination of the San Sisto Choirbooks (see lot 58). The meticulous finish of the Bishop Saint is close to the artist's smooth painted surface of his panel paintings (cf. a panel with St Dominic, priv.coll.; see Mulas, op.cit. 2007, fig.3).