- 1
St John the Evangelist venerated by a kneeling figure, historiated initial on a leaf from a Gradual, in Latin [Italy, Umbria or southern Italy, c.1270–80]
Description
- ink and pigment on vellum
Catalogue Note
Illumination: Palladino published this leaf together with five sister leaves when these were still part of the Lehman collection. She recognised four other leaves in the Cini Collection, Venice (26–29) as being part from the same manuscript, while an eleventh was known to her only through reproductions, Mensing et Fils, Amsterdam, 22 November 1929, lot 64.
These leaves are products of a single workshop but while some are closest to Umbrian illumination of the 1270s, closely allied to Byzantine models, others (as the present leaf) betray a stylistic relationship to Gothic models north of the Alps and may point to a different area of production for this entire group of illuminations, in Swabian southern Italy.
Exhibited: Pia Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art [exhibition catalogue, Cleveland Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Metropolitan Museum, 2003–2004], 2003, no.3b with colour illustration.