The past three decades have seen many groundbreaking works on fragments of medieval manuscripts, leaves and cuttings. Scholarship has contextualized their origin from dismantled manuscripts, situating the phenomenon in its historical framework and offering a more nuanced understanding of its complexity. Many monographs, exhibition catalogues, and catalogues of holdings in museums and private collections have brought to light a wealth of new material. The result is that now we can more readily assign dates, suggest attributions, and even pair manuscript paintings with others, sometimes identifying the parent manuscripts from which they originate. This catalogue contributes to this expanding literature in an ever-increasing field of study.
Twenty-two important illuminated leaves and cuttings from medieval manuscripts, many yet unpublished, are presented here with full scholarly apparatus. With remarkable precision, we are now able to attribute and date many previously unknown works and group them with sister works and sometimes parent manuscripts, further enriching our understanding of the art of illumination. The leaves and cuttings span from the early twelfth century to the early sixteenth century and originate from France, Italy, England, and Germany, showcasing a remarkable chronological and geographic breadth. Many renowned artists are included.
Going hand in hand with the new scholarship contained in this catalogue, an introduction by Gaia Grizzi takes a fresh and original look at isolated manuscript paintings and the art of collecting. Inspired by the contemporary artist Sophie Calle’s series of photographs called “Because,” she suggests that the decontextualized nature of cuttings uniquely emphasizes absence, encouraging collectors to form new associations with these art works in a manner quite unlike the engagement a manuscript volume elicits. Thought of in this way, individual manuscript paintings enter the pantheon of reappearance and reanimation subjectively imposed upon them by their later owners, be they museums or individuals. We hope this catalogue encourages readers to reflect on their own associations with manuscript paintings as art.
MANUSCRIPT PAINTINGS AND THE ART OF COLLECTING
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Introduction: Because…: Manuscript Paintings and the Art of Collecting
1. Bonifacio Bembo, Annunciation, Italy, Milan or Cremona, c. 1450
2. Maestro dello Statuto di Siena del 1337, Saint Peter, Italy, Siena, c. 1335
3. French Painter, Saint Paul the Apostle, France, probably Auvergne, c. 1180
4. Giovanni di Paolo, The Miracle of the Cradle, Italy, Siena, c. 1435
5. Lombard Illuminator, Annunciation, Italy, Lombardy, Brescia or Mantua, c. 1510
6. Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate (or Circle of), Monks Singing, Italy, Lombardy, dated 1476
7. Jean Colombe, The Crucifixion, France, Bourges, c. 1470–1475
8. Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, Funeral Service, Italy, Lombardy, c. 1495–1500
9. Master B.F., The Prophet Isaiah, Italy, Lodi, early 1500–1510
10. Magdalena Kremer (?), Saint Michael Weighing Souls, Germany, Kirchheim unter Teck or Alsace, c. 1490
11. Berlin(?) Master of Mary of Burgundy, Triumph of David, Southern Netherlands, Ghent, c. 1480
12. Maestro Daddesco, Saint Peter, Italy, Florence, c. 1331–1334
13. Workshop of the Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret, Christ Appears to Saint James the Lesser, Northern France, Thérouanne (?), c. 1400
14. Anonymous German Painter, Six Scenes of the Day of Creation, Germany, Regensburg (?), c. 1300
15. Maestro Orcagnesco, The Entry into Jerusalem, Italy, Florence, c. 1360–1370
16. Girolamo dai Libri, Pentecost, Italy, Verona, c. 1490s
17. Maestro della Bibbia Istoriata Padovana (follower?), Saint Peter, Italy, Padua, c. 1410–1420
18. Cristoforo Cortese, The Burial of a Dominican Nun, Italy, Venice, 1401–1402
19. Luçon Master (or Circle of), Labors of the Months and Zodiac Signs, France, Paris or Bourges, c. 1410
20. Jean Haincelin, Annunciation to Joachim and Anne Teaching Mary to Read, France, Paris, c. 1445–1450
21. Master A of San Pier Maggiore, Saints Peter, Andrew, and Paul, Italy, Florence, c. 1346
22. Anonymous English Illuminator, Saint John the Baptist, England (probably East Anglia), c. 1375–1400
Epilogue Bibliography
p. 6 p. 12 p.16 p. 22 p. 26 p. 32 p. 36 p. 42 p. 46 p. 52 p. 56 p. 62 p. 66 p. 72 p. 76 p. 80 p. 84 p. 90 p. 94 p. 98 p. 102 p. 108 p. 114 p. 119 p. 120
Because…: Manuscript Paintings and the Art of Collecting
A series of photographs is concealed behind thick curtains embroidered with text. “Parce que la tentation de la suivre” (Because of the temptation to follow it) accompanies The White Line (2018), a photograph of a road divider sinking underwater (Fig. 1). Beyond the evident irony, what makes this series by contemporary artist Sophie Calle (1953–) so compelling is how it invites viewers to read the text before seeing the image, reversing the usual relationship between the two mediums. Each caption in the series, beginning with “Because,” explains the reason the photograph was taken. This approach reflects an active creative process: the artist isolates a fragment of reality to transform it into art. Yet this same inversion of text and image also invites us to reflect on the choices we make daily when selecting images. “Because”… this photo of me celebrating is the one I choose to share on social media. “Because”… this painting of this Annunciation is the one I will never forget after seeing it at an exhibition. “Because”… this German engraving is the one I want to see every day, framed above my sofa. These choices reflect an intellectual, logical, and emotional process that guides amateurs, collectors, and art historians alike in their selection and appreciation of images. By engaging with Calle’s approach and forcing ourselves to precede every image with a “because,” we articulate our choices as deeply personal and culturally significant, revealing how they shape our interpretation of reality.
When we, as art dealers, engage in conversations with collectors or explore museums and libraries, we are perpetually seeking to uncover the essence of a specific collection: its history, the deliberate choices that render it so unique, and the underlying narrative that binds it together, giving it its distinct soul. Collections of medieval and Renaissance illuminations are especially subject to controversial interpretations. The fact that painted pages, single leaves, or even cuttings originate from dismantled manuscripts naturally evokes regret—both for the act itself and for the loss of context. Fortunately, scholarship by figures such as Christopher de Hamel, Sandra Hindman, Rowan Watson, and Roger Wieck has contextualized this phenomenon, situating it in its historical framework and offering a more nuanced understanding of its complexity. Combined with advances in provenance research, market studies, and remarkable exhibitions of single leaves over the past decades, we are now better equipped to understand such collections.
The present catalogue draws on these contributions and aspires to enrich future research. It features twenty-two miniatures—many yet unpublished—including leaves and cuttings from illuminated manuscripts. For some, we have been able to formulate specific hypotheses about the parent manuscript or related sister leaves—often held in prestigious museums or libraries. As it is customary in such studies, our efforts have focused on recontextualizing these fragments, assigning dates, and establishing attributions. In some instances, with remarkable precision, it became evident that the miniatures could complete an iconographic program, refer to a specific work, or align with other dated commissions. A few of the pieces presented here are by renowned artists, such as Jean Colombe, famous for his contribution to Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry , or Cristoforo Cortese, who dominated the illustration of Venetian manuscripts in the late fourteenth century. Others are attributed to lesser-known figures, including female illuminators like Magdalena Kremer, or to artists such as Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, whose work remains underexplored in scholarly research. In some cases, we can only suggest provisional attributions, but these efforts contribute to reconstructing artistic identities and influences, helping to build coherent profiles from previously isolated attributions. The painted pages featured in this catalogue span from the early twelfth century to the early sixteenth century and originate from France, Italy, England, and Germany, showcasing a remarkable geographic and chronological breadth. We have benefited greatly from the expertise of leading illumination specialists, whose invaluable insights we acknowledge here and individually in the catalogue entries.
Despite our best efforts at recontextualization, we are ultimately dealing with fragments. As such, the following texts reflect on what is no longer present, what might have been, and what exists elsewhere. While not reviving a romantic idealization of the fragment, we would like to attempt a brief reflection on what the act of recomposing entails today. Far from constraining us, recent scholarship provides a sense of lightness and freedom when engaging with illuminations. This freedom allows us to approach each miniature as an independent work, detached from its original narrative or liturgical function. A Crucifixion will not be followed by a Deposition, as it would in a Book of Hours with a complete Passion Cycle. There will be no chants accompanying the decorated ‘K’ initial of the Kyrie . These cuttings stand alone, framed singularly, and may appear in museums or private collections, engaging in dialogues with other works, likely from vastly different periods yet brought together by their shared resonance and aesthetic or historical significance. A collector might associate pieces to reflect personal taste or a specific theme, maybe something that resonates with his personal history, his travels, or his family or even his name. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston exemplifies magnificently this personal vision in collecting. Similarly, museums may position an artist's illuminations alongside their larger paintings—such as in the remarkable Van Eyck exhibition in Ghent in 2000—creating a dialogue between the intimate scale of a painted page and the grandeur of panel paintings.
Yet, the possibilities for association are infinite. Reinterpretations and survivals are central in art history, as Aby Warburg (1866–1929) demonstrated with his Mnemosyne Atlas (1924–1929, pl. 46) (Fig. 2) where a photograph taken in the Florentine countryside is juxtaposed with Botticelli's Venus or an illuminated page by Gherardo di Giovanni del Fora depicting Susanna and the Elders. But we could also imagine an Ecce Homo displayed next to one of George Grosz’s satirical paintings, juxtaposing sacred imagery with biting caricature. Similarly, a delicate miniature by Cristoforo Cortese might be arranged in a display drawer alongside a Dürer engraving, creating a striking dialogue between late-medieval illumination and printmaking.
Yet the decontextualized nature of cuttings uniquely emphasizes absence, urging us to engage in acts of imaginative creation. It is up to each of us to form new associations, articulate personal perspectives, and clarify the reasons for our choices—our own “because.” Some museums choose to shield miniatures behind thick cloths to protect them from light exposure; certain collectors do the same. Yet, I have not seen cloth embroidered with words. Behind each of them lies a discovery, a marvel. Inspired by Sophie Calle, I invite you to play her game: close your eyes for a moment, pick your miniature, and inwardly compose your own “because” as a tribute to the works of art. I hope the pages that follow will inspire many such “because.”
Bonifacio is best known for his work in Cremona, where he was active from 1447 to 1478, for his chief patrons the duke Francesco Sforza and his wife Bianca Maria Visconti. Among his securely attributed works are two frescoed portraits of them located today in the church of Sant’Agostino and, presumably, some of the painted Tarot cards, of which different sets survive in the Morgan Library and the Museum, the Cary Collection of Yale University, and in Italy. These are usually dated around 1450, the Yale deck possibly earlier. He signed a large polyptych of the Virgin and Child between Saints Anthony Abbot, Nicodemus, Catherine of Alexandria, and Peter Martyr (Milan, Castello Sforzesco) executed for the chapel of Saint Nicodemus in the Castello Rossi of Torrechiara, near Parma: “Benedictus Bembus ediit MCCCCLXII Mensis Mai” (Fig. 1). Only one document dated 1452 for a Breviary for the Frati Ospitalieri of Sant’Antonio in Cremona, now lost, attests to his work as an illuminator. Apart from the Tarot cards and a stunning manuscript commonly attributed to him of the story of Lancelot with 289 pen-and-ink drawings that is signed by the scribe 1446 (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Pal. 556), little is known for certain about Bembo as an illuminator. Scholars have attributed isolated leaves, cuttings, and manuscripts to him over the last decades: two leaves in Philadelphia (Free Library, MS 71.6–7); a Psalter in Rimini (Biblioteca Civica Gambalunga, MS SC-MSM.1); a cutting of Two Marys at the Tomb, in the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. 1475/99); an initial of David in Cremona (Museo Civico, D.33), a Choir Psalter in Cremona (Biblioteca Statale, MS 186); and a mutilated Choir Psalter in Mirandola (Centro Culturale Polivalente, MS A). A coherent profile of him as an illuminator still does not emerge from these isolated attributions.
1
Bonifacio Bembo
Annunciation, in an initial ‘A’ from a Choir Book Italy, Milan or Cremona, c. 1450
In this lyrical illumination, the graceful angel Gabriel, in a long white robe with red decoration appears before the Virgin, dressed in blue, red, and green, who sensitively leans toward Gabriel, as she stands before a lectern, her reading interrupted, in an open Gothic aedicula. The angel gestures toward Mary, who in turn points toward herself. Almost unnoticed, a dove passes just behind the column blending into the color scheme, and from God the Father’s mouth, thin golden rays issue defining the dove’s path. The figures are set against a lapis blue background encircled by an ornamental frieze framed by double white lines and enclosing a curving line that itself encloses small white quadrilobes. The warm tones of the initial ‘A’ in mauve and soft green are set against a lavish gold ground, elaborately tooled with punchwork rosettes enclosed in a crisscross pattern and framed with further tooling and punchwork.
Physical description
150 × 127 mm, cut to shape; verso two 4-line stave, height 33 mm; text: “…atie nostra spes/ a. Et stella.”
Everything about this manuscript fragment points to the finest work by Bonifacio Bembo. The elongated figures with small heads and high waists posed in a Gothic sway, their faces with high foreheads and small noses and pointed chins, rosy cheeks, their unusually large and dark pupils in proportion to the white of the eyes, the small lobed ears that peak out from curly blond hairdos, and tiny delicate hands. Compare, for example, the angel Gabriel both with the Knight of Coins in the Cary-Yale Visconti deck of Tarot cards and with the Queen of Swords in the Morgan deck (Figs. 2 and 3). Not only are the figures similar, so too is the gold tooled and punched ornament; note the crisscrossed backgrounds of the Visconti-Sforza sets, containing the Visconti sun motif instead of the quadrilobed rosette, and the framed circular punchwork in the Cary-Yale Visconti. Bonifacio Bembo’s painting in Avignon (Musée du Petit Palais) includes a Virgin who compares closely in figure and facial type, as well as pose, with the Virgin in the present miniature (Fig. 4). This female type is repeated in many other accepted attributions to Bembo such as the Lancelot drawings, where we also find Gothic aediculae set in three-quarter view (Fig. 5).
Fig. 1
Bonifacio Bembo, detail of the Love story between Bianca Pellegrini and Pier Maria Rossi Frescoes from the Gold Room, Torrechiara Castle, Langhirano
Bonifacio Bembo, Queen of Swords, The ViscontiSforza Tarot (New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.630.23)
Provenance
Private Collection, Switzerland.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: Longhi 1928; Dummett 1986; Marubbi 1992; Maggioni in Bollati 2004, 82–84; Cardini 2009; Depaulis and Kaplan 2017.
Fig. 2
Bonifacio Bembo, Knight of Coins (female), the Cary-Yale Visconti deck of Tarot cards (New Haven, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 33220491)
Fig. 3
This newly discovered Annunciation, surely by Bembo, encourages revisiting some of the previous attributions of manuscript illuminations to the illusive artist. The figure of God the father appears in the Rimini Psalter, and it also resembles representations of David in the same manuscript dated 1442. Two illuminations are even closer. Similar to the present initial in its tooled and punched gold leaf framing is a Psalter leaf illustrating Monks Singing sold in London Christie’s (13 July 2016, lot 108) Although the figures have none of the elegance of those in the present initial, the framing devices could suggest the same workshop. Still closer is a wonderful fragment on a partial historiated initial depicting the Creation of Eve (Milan, Longari, location unknown) with its graceful figures, white tracery on a blue ground, and similar tooling and punchwork (Fig. 6). Do these come from the same commission for a manuscript, still to be reconstructed? Our initial, perhaps the best of those that have survived from the scattered miniatures attributed to Bonifacio Bembo, coupled with the ex-Longari fragment, offers a potentially fruitful path for resolving better this talented artist’s work as a manuscript illuminator.
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.
Fig. 4
Bonifacio Bembo, detail of the Nativity, from Triptych (Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais, Calvet 22810)
Fig. 5
Bonifacio Bembo, Historia di Lancillotto del Lago (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Pal. 556)
Fig. 6
Bonifacio Bembo, Creation of Eve (Milan, Longari, location unknown)
Maestro dello Statuto di Siena del 1337
Italy, Siena, active c. 1300-1340
Named for a set of Statutes of the Commune of Siena illuminated between 1337 and 1339 (Siena, Archivio di Stato, MS Statuti 26), the painter was one of Siena’s leading illuminators in the decades leading up to the Black Death of 1348. The earliest work associated with him is a collection of the Lives of the Church Fathers (Siena, Bibl. Comunale degli Intronati, MS I. V. 8), dated c. 1300. His early works reveal a knowledge of the art of the Maestro dei Corali di Massa Marittima (c. 1290–1325), alias Memmo di Filippuccio, whose painting preserves the heritage of Duccio. However, his mature style compares well with the Gothic elegance of his famous contemporary Simone Martini (c. 1284–1344), to whom the initial ‘D’ of Christ Blessing introducing the manuscript of the Statutes pays tribute, while it also recognizes the decorative schema and chromatic palette of Pietro Lorenzetti (1280–1348). Many cuttings widely dispersed in collections in Liège (Fig. 1), Nuremberg, Milan, Moscow, Weimar, Stuttgart, and elsewhere come from a series of Antiphonals, dismantled already by the mid-nineteenth century. The Maestro dello Statuto di Siena del 1337 emerges as the most brilliant and vibrant Sienese illuminator before Niccolò di Ser Sozzo, with whom he collaborated toward the end of his career in a series of Choir Books in Empoli. New research suggests that our anonymous artist could possibly be Niccolò’s father, Ser Sozzo di Stefano, whose activity as an illuminator in Siena is documented between the years 1293 and 1321.
2
Maestro dello Statuto di Siena del 1337
Saint Peter, in an initial ‘Q’ from a Choir Book
Italy, Siena, c. 1335
Posed frontally in three-quarter view, a majestic image of Saint Peter stares out at the viewer as he holds a book and his attribute, the keys, within an initial ‘Q’. The brilliant reddish-orange and blue coloring of the acanthus border harmonizes beautifully with the alternating bands of the frame and the robe and book held by the saint, whose softer green mantle stands out. Although the choice of a green mantle instead of the traditional yellow mantle for Peter is unusual, the preference is already discernable in an initial ‘S’ from the artist’s earlier Antiphonal in the Archivio Capitolare in Pistoia, formerly in the Church of San Pietro a Vitolini in Vinci (MS A ss.2, f. 206v) (Fig. 2). The saint’s face, hair, and beard are also remarkably similar in the two works.
The present initial with Saint Peter reveals all the characteristics of the late work of the Maestro dello Statuto di 1337, when he has fully assimilated the style of Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti. A large series of more than a dozen fragments from a set of Franciscan Antiphonals, possibly illuminated
Physical description
141 × 131 mm, cut to shape; musical notation on a 4-line stave, height 33 mm; text: “ …iustitie. a. Mi[hi vivere Christus] est et mori lu[crum],” large initial blue with red penwork, rubric in red.
for the Basilica of San Francesco in Siena, are most likely from the same series. In 2002 and 2013, Gaudenz Freuler first identified this series; the group is presently the subject of a study by Beatrice Alai, who includes our Saint Peter in her recent publication. They date just before his illuminated Statutes, which is confirmed by the initial ‘F’ with the scene of Martyrdom of Sienese Franciscans at Tana (Ceuta) (Milan, Private Collection) (Fig. 3), an event not known in Siena before 1330 and subsequently depicted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti for the Franciscan convent in Siena in 1331 (Fig. 4).
Alai has identified many of the cuttings from this series in the collection of Johann Anton Ramboux (1790-1866), a painter and conservator, which was sold by Heberle in Cologne in 1868.
Fig. 1
Maestro dello Statuto di Siena del 1337, Standing Christ (Liège, Musée d’art religieux et d’art mosan, H 13c GC.REL.05e.1937.31773)
Fig. 2
Maestro dello Statuto di Siena del 1337, Initial ‘S’, Saint Peter Enthroned (Pistoia, Archivio Capitolare, Antiphonal MS A ss.2, f. 206v)
The initial ‘Q’ introduced the chant for the first antiphon at Vespers of the Feast of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul (June 29). The full prayer from the Gospel of Matthew (16:13, 16, and 18) reads “Quem dicunt homines esse Filium hominis? dixit Jesus discipulis suis. Respondens Petrus dixit: Tu es Christus, Filius Dei vivi. Et ego dico tibi qui a tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam” (Whom do men say that the Son of man is, said Jesus to his disciples. Peter answered and said: You are Christ, the Son of the living God. And I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church).
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.
Provenance
Private Collection, United Kingdom.
Literature
Published: Alai 2024, no. 33, 465; Related Literature: Labriola et al. 2002, 53–67, 291–95. Freuler 2013, vol. II, 478–85.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Martyrdom of the Franciscans, Detached frescoes from the chapter hall of the Basilica of San Francesco in Siena
Fig. 3
Maestro dello Statuto di Siena del 1337, Initial F, Martyrdom of Sienese Franciscans at Tana (Ceuta) (Milan, Private Collection)
Fig. 4
French Painter
Saint Paul the Apostle, in an initial ‘P’ from a Bible France, probably Auvergne, c. 1180
This large initial comes from a giant Romanesque Bible, where it introduced one of Saint Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Christopher de Hamel has evocatively described this illumination (2018, 23–33), adapted here. Emerging from a background of rich gold leaf signifying sacred space, Paul places one foot outside the initial ‘P’ (for Paulus) as though traversing the boundary between the sacred and the secular. We can understand the gesture he makes with his right hand as one of speech; he addresses a group of attendant Corinthians. Paul’s listeners are wearing soft textile hats, probably imagined as Phrygian caps, appropriate since Corinthians were Greek. The opening words of Corinthians introduce “Paulus vocatus Apostolus” (Paul called to be an Apostle). But, we can imagine that the words he actually pronounces are those on the speech banderole he holds in his left hand on which is written the opening text of I Corinthians: 19-20: “An nescitis q(uonia)m m(em) br [a ... ]” (Do you not know that your body is a temple). One wonders if the rippling, vibrant red background behind Paul’s listeners, described as “startling” by de Hamel, could allude to the fraught relationship between Paul and the Corinthian Church.
Large, often illuminated, and certainly expensive, complete copies of the Bible, usually in several volumes, were produced across Europe in the twelfth century, most often for monasteries. These splendid copies of the Holy Scriptures, sometimes called Giant Bibles, were primarily for liturgical use for reading during the night Office of Matins, and thus they reflect the renewed fidelity to the liturgy born of the monastic reform movement. Select readings from Corinthians were used every day in the liturgy of the Mass, and I Corinthians was read on the first Sunday after Trinity. Many such Bibles were produced in France, from Saint-Remi in Reims, Fleury, Clairvaux and elsewhere, as they became essential components of the well-equipped abbey. One of the most celebrated of these Giant Bibles is the Bible of Souvigny, which was made at the end of the twelfth century for the Cluniac Priory of Saints Peter and Paul in the town of Souvigny (Moulins, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 1). It is with this Bible, considered a masterpiece of French medieval art, that our manuscript illumination is most closely related.
Written by the same scribe responsible for the Romanesque Bible of Souvigny, the present fragment comes from the second or final volume of a dismembered Giant Bible made for a Cluniac monastery in the Auvergne in central France. Four sister leaves from the same Bible have come down to us; this one is the only one with a historiated initial. Of the other leaves, three fragments in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Mn. Mas.
Physical description
c. 210 × 160 mm, initial c. 90 × 100 mm; rectangular cutting trimmed to the edges of a tall decorated initial ‘P’; incomplete single column written in 22 lines, ruled in graphite (each line 8 mm in height) in a protogothic bookhand in black ink, with capitals written on top II lines in blue, red, and yellow, with incipit: “Paulus I voca I tus I ap(osto)l(u)s ... , the text ending sine crimine, in die ad[ ... ]” (I Corinthians r:1–8), verso: single column written in 23 lines in black ink with alternating initials in red and blue and Roman numerals in red, numbered from 23 to 45, with chapter summaries from I Corinthians, beginning: “XXIII De contagione et pasche et reg no dei..., ” ending “XLV. ... sc(ri)pta s(unt) aute(m) ad correptione(m) n(ost)ram.”
22, 23, and 25) include respectively the opening to Jerome’s prologue to Job, the opening of Jerome’s prologue to the Four Gospels, and the opening to I Galatians, which includes a tall initial ‘P’, the letter that would have followed Corinthians (Figs. 1, 2, and 3). A fourth complete leaf is in the Lilly Library of Indiana University in Bloomington (MS Ricketts 2) (Fig. 4). It allows us to calculate the volume’s original impressive dimensions of about 14 ½ × 20 ½ inches with 50 lines of text compared to the smaller Souvigny Bible of 11 × 15 ½ inches with 46 lines of text. The leaves from the collector Jean Masson (1865–1933) in Paris were acquired in 1925, and the leaf in the Lilly Library was purchased by the Chicagoan Coella Lindsay Ricketts in France in 1930. This one also comes from a French sale. De Hamel surmises that the second volume of a two-volume set was disgorged at the suppression of the French monasteries during the French Revolution.
Fig. 1
Opening to Jerome’s prologue to Job, Initial 'C' (Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Mn. Mas. 22r)
Although de Hamel ponders whether this dismantled volume could have been a second, twin volume made for Souvigny itself, because of the shared scribe and based on a handbook describing the practices of Cluniac houses as requiring two Bibles, one for the church and one for the refectory, he notes that the record ordering the Souvigny Bible by the sacristan Bernard between 1183 and 1206 mentions only one Bible. Moreover, the illuminator of our fragment is not the same as the artist of the Souvigny Bible, although the wonderful green, red, and blue interlace present on our leaf and the Lilly leaf occur also in the Souvigny Bible (Fig. 5). Note also the similarity between the initial ‘P’ at the beginning of Corinthians in the Souvigny Bible and the present initial ‘P’; in both Paul adopts the same pose, with similarities in palette, drapery, and the banderole, and the Corinthians are gathered in the same positions. Related scribes and illuminators also worked on the twelfthcentury Bible Clermont-Ferrand (Bibliothèque du Patrimoine, Clermont Auvergne Métropole, MS 1), probably completed by itinerant professionals not monastic artisans from within the foundation. Whatever monastery our fragments came from, their survival is important and expands our knowledge of Cluniac Romanesque style flat Byzantinizing drapery, bright primary enamel-like colors, crisp interlace when most Cluniac monuments were subject to mass destruction at the time of the Revolution.
Fig. 3
Opening to Galatians¸ Initials ‘G’ and ‘P’ (Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Mn. Mas. 25r)
Fig. 2
Opening of Jerome’s prologue to the Four Gospels, Initials ‘S’ and ‘P’ (Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Mn. Mas. 23r)
Provenance
France, Saumur, Xavier de la Perraudière, January 21, 2015, lot 174; Sandra Hindman, The Art Institute of Chicago, on deposit, 2018–2024; exhibited 27 January to 28 May 2018.
Literature
Published: de Hamel and Westerby 2018, no. 1, 22–33; Related Literature: Cahn 1996, vol. II, no. 43, 53–55; de Hamel 2001, 64–91; de Hamel 2010.
Fig. 4
Text from Ephesians, MS Ricketts 2 (Bloomington, Indiana University, Lilly Library)
Fig. 5
Initial 'P', Saint Paul and an audience of Corinthians (Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque du Patrimoine, Bible de Souvigny, MS 1)
Giovanni di Paolo
Italy, Siena, 1398-1482
Unlike many of their Northern European compatriots, Italian painters practiced frequently in diverse painted media, including panel painting, fresco, manuscript illumination, and even book covers, textiles, and ephemera. Giovanni di Paolo, who was perhaps the most distinctive and imaginative painter in fifteenthcentury Siena, offers an excellent example of an artist with such a polyvalent career. His patrons ranged from private individuals and families to guilds, Pope Pius II (reigned 1458–1464), royalty, and various religious orders, including the Dominicans, Franciscans, Servites, and Augustinians. Numerous archival records and dated works (some of which bear inscriptions with his name) testify to his abundant output. The first documented commission was a Book of Hours for Donna Anna Castiglione in 1417 (unfortunately lost), and the earliest surviving work is a round box with The Triumph of Venus dated 1421 (Paris, Musée du Louvre, OA 2517) (Fig. 1). Over the course of a long and prolific career, he created monumental altarpieces for prominent families, the Bellanti family, the Malavolti family, and the Brancheti family. He painted impressive wooden covers for volumes of Siena’s chancellery of finance, known as the Bicchierna. Following his first documented commission as a manuscript illuminator, he contributed miniatures to an important Gradual for the Augustinians in Lecceto around 1442 (Siena, Biblioteca degli Intronati, MS G.I.8); illuminations from about 1444–1450 for Paradiso in a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy for King Alfonso V of Aragon (r. 1416–1458) (London, British Library, Yates Thompson MS 36); and the illumination of another Gradual for the Augustinians at Lecceto in the 1450s together with Pellegrino di Mariano (Siena, Biblioteca degli Intronati, MS H.I.2). His bold and sometime abstract, even distorted forms, his luxurious and crisp decorative detail, and his evocative narratives distinguish him from other Sienese artists.
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Giovanni di Paolo
The Miracle of the Cradle, in an initial ‘G’ from a Choir Book
Italy, Siena, c. 1435
This striking initial with its brilliant green and orange colors, highlighted by both a surround and backdrop of thickly burnished gold leaf, depicts an unusual subject. Deriving from the lower right panel of an altarpiece by Simone Martini painted c. 1324 for the church of Sant’Agostino in Siena, it illustrates one of the posthumous miracles attributed to a local Augustinian monk Agostino Novello (d. 1309), who was buried in that church (Fig. 2). Simone’s panel and Giovanni di Paolo’s miniature illustrate the story of a sixmonth-old baby from a notable Sienese family, a son of the late Migucci di Giovanni Paganello and his wife Margarita. The little boy fell from his cradle and broke his skull when a cord snapped in the cradle while the nurse was
Physical description
c. 212 × 175 mm; two registers of square notation, with four staves in red ink (rastrum 45 mm), in black ink: “[. .. ] desiderio I ob quad ass[ .. .],” later addition in pencil, in upper right corner ‘8’ and in lower right corner ‘9’.
rocking the child. Praying to the blessed Agostino Novello for the child’s recovery, the boy’s aunt Nera promised to offer him as an oblate to become an Augustinian friar at the shrine of Agostino Novello. At the left in the initial, Margarita and Nera carry the little boy, dressed in black Augustinian robes, to the shrine, which resembles the church of Sant’ Agostino in Siena. The candle held by the child references the iconography of the Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple celebrated as Candlemas.
This miniature probably comes from a series of Choir Books from the Augustinian monastery of Lecceto located about eight kilometers from the center of Siena. Several generations of illuminators, beginning in the 1390s and concluding in the 1450s, illustrated the twenty splendid Lecceto volumes. Dating during the second to the last campaign, between 1446 and 1450, the present initial joins four others: Saint John the Baptist and the Archangel Michael in the Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke; God appearing to King David in the Getty Museum (inv. no. MS 29) (Figs. 3 and 4); and the Archangel Michael Censing an Altar (Private Collection) (Fig. 5). A fifth cutting of Saint Nicolas Tolentino, canonized 1446, now in the Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica, Vaticana Ross. 1187, f. 18) by Giovanni’s contemporary and sometime-collaborator Sano di Pietro, provides a terminus post quem for their execution. Those by Giovanni di Paolo share a palette of bright colors in deep purple, orange, and green, sharp facial features, and heavy foliate forms with precise outlines.
Fig. 3
Giovanni di Paolo and Sano di Pietro, Initial ‘F’, Saint Michael the Archangel and the Dragon (Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke)
Fig. 1
Giovanni di Paolo, Marriage Casket with Triumph of Venus (Paris, Musée du Louvre, OA 2517)
Fig. 2
Simone Martini, Miracle of the Cradle from the Altarpiece of Beato Agostino Novello (Siena, Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana)
Christopher de Hamel has commented on the manner in which Giovanni di Paolo incorporated architecture into his compositions. He notes similar structures to the one in the present miniature in the manuscript of Dante’s Divine Comedy (London, British Library, Yates Thompson MS 36) illustrated between 1444 and 1450 for King Alfonso V of Aragon at almost the same time as the Lecceto Choir Books (Fig. 6). He compares the architectural renderings as well in Giovanni di Paolo’s celebrated panel paintings, such as those in the Art Institute of Chicago, where the buildings are viewed from similar angles with shadows falling on the right side (Fig. 7). Sir Kenneth Clark, who owned the present miniature which remained in the family long after the dispersal of the bulk of his collection, raved about Giovanni di Paolo’s illumination of Dante as “the most beautiful … in existence … more delicate and brilliant than almost anything in Giovanni di Paolo’s painting.” Monumental in scale, evocative in subject, and in near perfect condition, the present miniature also showcases Giovanni di Paolo at the top of his form.
We thank Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.
Provenance
? James Dennistoun (1803–1855), although not in the album when dispersed in the Lord Clark sale in 1983; Sir Kenneth Clark, Lord Clark of Saltwood (1903–1983), then by descent; purchased London, Sotheby’s, December 2, 2014, lot 20; Sandra Hindman, The Art Institute of Chicago, on deposit, 2018–2024; exhibited 27 January to 28 May 2018.
Literature
Published: de Hamel and Westerby 2018, 106–15, 242; Keene in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, 244; Related Literature: Keene Forthcoming.
Fig. 4
Giovanni di Paolo, Initial ‘A’, Christ Appearing to David (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS 29 [87.MS.133])
Fig. 5
Giovanni di Paolo, Initial ‘S’, The Archangel Michael Censing an Altar (Private Collection)
Fig. 7
Giovanni di Paolo, Salome asking Herod for the head of Saint John the Baptist (Chicago, Art Institute, 1933.1013)
Fig. 6
Giovanni di Paolo, A Postulant Entering a Convent, Dante’s Paradiso (London, British Library, Yates Thompson MS 36, f. 134v, detail)
5
Lombard Illuminator
Annunciation, in an initial ‘D’ from a Choir Book Italy, Lombardy, Brescia or Mantua, probably San Benedetto in Polirone (Gradual E?), c. 1510
This large historiated initial ‘D’ with the Annunciation comes from a Choir Book and likely introduced the feast of the Annunciation (March 25). In this well-orchestrated composition, the Virgin’s quiet devotion, as she kneels at her prie-dieu absorbed in her prayer book, is interrupted by a luminous ray and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The angel Gabriel bursts into the scene with striking energy. His dynamic gestures, emphasized by the flowing drapery of his garments and his blonde hair, seems to break Mary’s tranquil concentration. Behind her, a sturdy architectural backdrop mirrors her inner serenity, while a delicate blue light filters through the loggia and portico, illuminating the room. Outside, the outlines of the city’s buildings can be seen in the distance. The skillful perspective, along with the delicate interplay of light, guides the viewer’s gaze to the central symbolic elements: a lily and a majestic peacock. The fragment, deprived of the text that accompanied it, preserves the initial letter ‘D’ set against a gold background. The purple body of the letter is adorned with a pearl motif and abundant green and pink vegetal elements.
This previously unpublished cutting is related to two leaves now at the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum in Berlin, representing The Calling of Saint Peter (initial ‘D’, min. 6219) (Fig. 1) and Saint Benedict Enthroned (initial ‘G’, min 6220) (Fig. 2). The resemblance can be observed in various elements. Among these are the checkered floor patterns and the dolphin heads (min. 6220), usually in the initial decoration, but here inserted on the prie-dieu. The Calling of Saint Peter in particular features almost the same dimensions for the gold background and an identical left border, alternating bands of gold and blue, highlighted by a delicate white line inset. The stamp at the bottom of this last-mentioned folio has allowed critics to trace its origin back to Polirone Abbey, linked to the renowned historical figure of Matilda of Canossa. If we accept the hypothesis proposed here of a connection between our Annunciation and the two Berlin folios, we can say they may have originated from the same Gradual, first identified as ‘E’ by Laura Gnaccolini (1996), or from a related Antiphonal also created for the Abbey of Polirone. Jacopo Mazzeo (in Roncroffi 2011) has retraced the historical trajectory of the various Polirone Choir Books, including the so-called Gradual ‘E’ which was likely sold in 1874 to the Roman antique dealer Alessandro Castellani (1823–1883), son of the famous goldsmith Fortunato Pio Castellani.
Physical description
c. 208 × 242 mm, initial c. 190 × 177 mm, cut to shape and laid down on cardboard.
1
2
From a stylistic perspective, Beatrice Alai has rightly identified a similarity between the Berlin folios and the work of the painters Vincenzo Foppa and Ambrogio Bergognone. This connection also appears clear in our Annunciation cutting, which can be compared to the Annunciation scene in the predella panel of the Grazie Polyptych (1500–1510) by Vincenzo Foppa, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (2094) (Fig. 3). Since 1996, Laura Gnaccolini has linked the Berlin leaves to the group on nineteen initials from the Rodolphe Kann Collection (1845–1905), previously examined by William Suida (1947). Suida dated these nineteen initials to the 1490s, attributing them to a single Lombard master active in the Brescia region and closely connected to the artist of the Arcimboldi Missal (Biblioteca del Capitolo del Duomo, Milan, MS II-D-1-13). Milvia Bollati, in her more recent analysis of the group, highlights the heterogeneous characteristics among some cuttings from the Kann Collection. According to her, several of these pieces should be attributed to the Veronese milieu, and more specifically to the workshop of Francesco and Girolamo dai Libri. However, Bollati maintains that a substantial part of these initials (including the initial ‘D’ with Saint John the Baptist, Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke) (Fig. 4) should
Fig.
Lombard Illuminator, Initial 'G' with Saint Benedict Enthroned (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, min 6220)
Fig.
Lombard Illuminator, Initial 'D' with The Calling of Saint Peter (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, min 6219)
be dated c.1500 and attributed to the same artist who painted the Berlin leaves, at a slightly later stage. She defines him as a “talented Lombard master, whose complex artistic formation we have begun to disentangle more fully and whose activity we can now reconstruct between Polirone near Mantua and Brescia, where he undertook civic and monastic commissions.” There are still obvious stylistic comparisons between the present Annunciation and the Saint John the Baptist from the Burke collection: the decoration of the letter, the palette with pastel colors, the chiaroscuro of the drapery, and the bluegrey landscape all suggest that our Annunciation could enrich the corpus of works attributed to this anonymous Lombard artist, who was thoroughly attuned to the innovations of the Milanese Renaissance in the first decade of the sixteenth century.
Gaia Grizzi
Provenance
San Benedetto in Polirone (Gradual E?); S.S. Floriano and San Benedetto Po (Mantova); likely sold in 1874 to the antique dealer Alessandro Castellani (1823–1883); probably through descent Torquato Castellani (1846–1931); France, Private Collection.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: Suida 1947, 26–27; Gnaccolini 1996; Zanichelli in Golinelli 2008, 155–57; Mazzeo and Zanichelli in Roncroffi and Ruini 2011, 31–36, 140–43; Alai 2019, cat. 93, 305–307; Bollati in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, no. 35, 348–53.
Fig. 3
Vincenzo Foppa, Annunciation from the Predella of the Grazie Polyptych (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera, 2094)
Fig. 4
Lombard Illuminator, Initial 'D', Saint John the Baptist (Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke)
Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate
Italy, Lombardy, active 1460–1480s
Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate was active in Lombardy, and especially in Milan, during the latter half of the fifteenth century. Despite his significant contributions to manuscript illumination, his biography remains relatively unknown. His identity began to emerge in 1916 when Paolo D’Ancona identified his signature, “Bartolomeus Rigossi,” on f. 3r of Choir Book XI from the Chapter Archives of the Cathedral of Sant’Evasio in Casale Monferrato (Piedmont). In 1970, Mirella Levi D’Ancona made an important step in reconstructing Gossi’s oeuvre by linking the Casale manuscript to an illuminated initial ‘C’ signed “BARTOLOMEUS OPUS DE GALARATE” (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Acc. No. 799-1894) (Fig. 1) and to other similar cuttings. Further advancements were made in 2003 and 2006 by Mario Marubbi, who unearthed two archival documents from the State Archives of Milan bearing Gossi’s name. These discoveries highlight Gossi’s pivotal role in the artistic landscape of late fifteenth-century Milan. He headed a flourishing workshop, active between 1473 and 1476, which trained notable artists such as Francesco da Castello, who later worked at the Hungarian court of King Matthias Corvinus. Stylistically, Gossi’s early works adhered to the late-Gothic Milanese tradition, influenced by Belbello da Pavia and the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum (Gnaccolini 2004). Over time, his style evolved, embracing Ferrarese models such as those by the Second Master of the Antiphonary M from San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Gossi and his workshop were entrusted with numerous prestigious commissions, including the decoration of nine out of fourteen Choir Books ordered by the Benedictine monks of San Sisto in Piacenza (Mulas 2011). His influence extended beyond Lombardy, particularly to Piedmont, cementing his reputation as one of the foremost artists of what has been defined as the “golden age of liturgical manuscript production in Italy” (Overty 2010).
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Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate (or Circle of)
Monks Singing, in an Initial ‘K’ from a Choir Book Italy, Lombardy, dated 1476
In this richly illuminated scene, a choir of Benedictine monks is depicted in full-length profile, static yet expressive, as they chant a Kyrie eleison. The scene, probably from a Kyriale, unfolds within a religious building, characterized by ribbed vaults, vividly colored columns, and decorated capitals. The inspired gazes of the monks are directed at an open manuscript displaying the notation for the Kyrie. The Choir Book rests on a badalone, a lectern with a wide, profusely decorated base that dominates the composition. The detailed composition stands out for its vivid and vibrant color palette, leveraging contrasts of green, pink, and blue. Equally exuberant is the initial, set against a gold background, integrating the architectural elements of the main scene and branching into intricate and colorful vegetation.
Physical description
215 × 240 mm, initial 195 × 205 mm; verso, 4-line stave, height 42 mm, text: “lesion […] riee.”
Most works attributed to Gossi da Gallarate (Lacaze 1994; Gnaccolini 2004) are characterized by outdoor settings, with recognizable treatments of landscapes (Figs. 2 and 3). These elements are absent in this scene; however, specific stylistic features, such as the use of profiles, sharp contour definitions, and the rendering of marble, along with the striking use of color and figure expressiveness, allow us to attribute this miniature if not to Gossi himself, to his circle. This work is particularly distinguished by its rare inclusion of a date, elegantly inscribed on the ceiling arch at the upper center: 1476. Additionally, the motif of a two-handled vase containing a triple-stemmed lily, painted on the architectural framework above the date, connects this cutting to a group of Graduals and Antiphonaries that formed the original liturgical collection of the Cathedral of Sant’Evasio in Casale Monferrato. Among these, the Antiphonal XI contains the famous portrait of the patron, William VIII Palaiologos (1420–1483), and is signed by Gossi (f. 3r) (Fig. 4). Meanwhile, folio 3v of the Antiphonary of the Common of Saints (also from the Episcopal Archives, Casale Monferrato) features an initial ‘E’ with Saints Peter and Paul, likely executed by an artist from Gossi’s circle (Rampi 2000). On the same folio, various heraldic shields—linked to the Paleologi family—are depicted. The two-handled vase motif with triple lilies reappears at both the upper and lower central borders, matching the design above the date in our miniature (Fig. 5). This emblem has not been definitively identified, but Elena Rampi
Fig. 1
Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate, Initial ‘C’, two mitred saints holding croziers and books (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Acc. No. 799-1894)
(2000) emphasizes its historical significance for the Cathedral of Casale; in 1615, it was visible on the building’s main door during a pastoral visit.
Thus, this cutting can likely be traced to one of the manuscripts (perhaps a Kyriale?) from the liturgical collection of the Cathedral of Sant’Evasio, donated by William VIII Palaiologos shortly after Casale Monferrato was elevated to an episcopal seat. This work reflects the wealth and artistic patronage of this influential figure (Fig. 6). While specific verifications have not yet been possible, we hope that future research will shed light on this fascinating commission.
Gaia Grizzi
Fig. 2
Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate, Initial ‘N’, The Resurrected Christ Appearing to the Marys (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. 49 (93.MS.8), r)
Fig. 3
Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate, Initial ‘D’, Carthusian monk accompanied by two angels and receiving a book from God (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 6-1979)
Fig. 6
Maestro della Cappella di Santa Margherita a Crea, Sanctuary of Santa Maria Assunta, Serralunga di Crea, Frescoes from the Chapel of Saint Margaret
4 (detail)
4
Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate, Initial ‘A’, Portrait of William VIII Palaiologos (Casale Monferrato, Episcopal Archives, ACC. FL1, f. 3r)
5
Circle of Bartolomeo Gossi da Gallarate, Initial ‘E’, Saints Peter and Paul (Casale Monferrato, Episcopal Archives, ACC. FL8, f. 3v)
Provenance
Maison d’Art Monaco July 2022; Private Collection, Switzerland.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: D’Ancona 1916, 85–87; Levi D’Ancona 1970, 77–90; Lacaze 199394; Rampi 2000, 167–74; Gnaccolini in Bollati 2004, 908–10; Overty 2010, 151–62; Mulas in Bollati 2012, 45–53
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Jean Colombe
France, Bourges, active 1430-1493
Jean Colombe belonged to a prominent family of artists from Bourges, the chief town of the duchy of Berry. He was recorded there from 1463 until 1493, and he is believed to have lived and worked there continuously except for a few short periods. Nonetheless, neither his reputation nor his activity was restricted to his native city. He was patronized and protected by Charlotte of Savoy, queen of Louis XI and a noted bibliophile. He illuminated manuscripts for the queen, her daughter Anne of Beaujeu, and various members of the court. It was probably through Charlotte that Colombe was introduced into the service of her nephew, Charles I, Duke of Savoy, who retained him to complete two unfinished manuscripts in his library between 1485 and 1490: the splendid Apocalypse by Jean Bapteur and Perronet Lamy (Spain, El Escorial, E. Vit. 5) and, probably the most celebrated of all Books of Hours, the Limbourg brothers Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 65) (Fig. 1). Among his other important commissions earlier in date is a Book of Hours for Louis de Laval (Paris, BnF, MS lat. 920) and the related Bureau Hours (Paris, Drouot, November 13, 2023, lot 88), both probably from the early 1470s. Colombe was commissioned to illustrate secular as well as religious texts and seems to have taken delight in providing scenes set within complex architecture or expansive landscapes and, wherever possible, containing crowds of onlookers. His narrative enthusiasm and invention were evidently keenly appreciated and, with the aid of his atelier including his sons Philibert and François, he decorated many manuscripts including some with the most ambitious of illustrative ensembles.
7
Jean Colombe
The Crucifixion, leaf from a Book of Hours
France, Bourges, c. 1470–1475
This Crucifixion is a splendid example from among the most accomplished works of Jean Colombe. The discarded cloaks of the mourners in the foreground, the thief taken down from the cross, Pilate on horseback, the crowd of soldiers in the background, and the exotic camel all attest to the rich narrative so characteristic of Colombe’s works. The expansive landscape, receding in tones of pale blue, reveals towers of a town in the distant background. The miniature illustrates Sext from the Hours of the Cross from a Book of Hours, and its reverse includes the prayer at the end of Terce (Fig. 2).
Only one other miniature is known from what must have been a richly illuminated Book of Hours. Today in the Musée du Louvre in Paris (Cabinet des dessins, RF54717), it portrays Christ before Pilate, at the beginning of Prime of the Hours of the Cross (Fig. 3) with its verso containing the conclusion of Matins (Fig. 4). Not only do the two miniatures share a comparable palette
Physical description
93 × 136 mm; on parchment; ruled for 16 lines, the recto with the end of Terce, from “penam pro salute nostra […],” with a panel border incorporating winged putti, the reverse inscribed in modern pencil ‘17’; tiny losses of pigment to the sky and to the face and body of the crucified thief, else in excellent condition.
and figure types, but they also display similar decorative jeweled borders and an opening text at the bottom of the sheet. In both cases the text, once placed in the lower quadrant of the miniature, has been painted over and moved to the lower edge of the parchment sheet, thus allowing for the expansion of the scene to occupy the entire page. A nearly identical jeweled border appears in the Bureau Hours (Paris, Drouot, November 14, 2023, lot. 88) (Fig. 5), and the use of text at the bottom of the page characterizes it and the Hours of Louis de Laval (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 920) (Fig. 6), thus helping place our miniature as well as the sister leaf in the Louvre, in the early 1470s.
Illuminated with a complete cycle for the Hours of the Cross, in addition to the Hours of the Virgin and presumably other standard texts, the original manuscript must have had an extensive cycle of illuminations, along the lines of those in the Hours of Louis de Laval and the Bureau Hours. A miniature depicting the Flagellation or the Carrying of the Cross for the hour of Terce once separated the present miniature and the Louvre sheet, and the reverse of the Crucifixion contains the conclusion of the text for Terce. What happened to the parent manuscript? A nineteenth-century copy of our leaf by the well-known forger Caleb Wing offers a clue to its subsequent history (Fig. 7). When the library of John Boykett Jarman was damaged during a flash flood in London in 1843, Jarman retained Wing to restore (repaint) many of his manuscripts. François Avril has suggested that the parent manuscript of these two leaves was perhaps mostly destroyed in that flood, but that Wing, having access to all the manuscripts, copied the Crucifixion. Alas, this can only remain a tantalizing hypothesis since such a parent manuscript is not easily identifiable in the summary descriptions of the sale of the Jarman manuscripts in 1864.
Fig. 2
Jean Colombe, verso of Fig. 3 (Paris, Musée du Louvre, RF54717v)
Fig. 1
Jean Colombe, Calendar page, November, from Les Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 65, f. 11v)
Fig. 4
Jean Colombe, verso of cat. no. 7
Provenance
? John Boykett Jarman (1782–1864); Maggs Bros., Cat. 802, 1951, no 15 (ill.), priced £63; inscribed ‘£55’ in pencil on the reverse; Alfred (1900–1965) and Felicie Amelie (Radziejewski) Scharf (1900–1991).
Literature
Published: Avril 2011, no. 96, 192–94; Related Literature: Backhouse 1968; Schaefer 1980; Avril and Reynaud 1993, 328–32; Avril 2023–2024, 14–25.
Fig. 3
Jean Colombe, Christ before Pilate (Paris, Musée du Louvre, RF54717r)
Fig. 5
Jean Colombe, Virgin and Child (Private Collection, Bureau Hours, f. 20)
Fig. 6
Jean Colombe, Commemoration of Matthias from the Horae ad usum Romanum, Hours of Louis de Laval (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 920, f. 270r)
Fig. 7
Caleb Wing, Nineteenth-century copy of cat. 7 (formerly Paulus Swaen Old Maps & Prints)
Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo
Italy, Lombardy, documented 1474-1507
The activity of the artist has been reconstructed based on several signed and dated fresco cycles, one in the apse of the Convent of the Annunciata of Borno, “HOC PETRUS PINXIT OPUS DE CEMO JOHANES 1475” (Giovanni Pietro of Cemmo painted this work in 1475) (Fig. 1) and another in the Church of San Rocco in Bagolino in 1483. Stylistic similarities with other dated fresco cycles for churches and convents in Cremona, Crema, Esine, Berzo, and elsewhere extend his career in monumental painting well into the 1490s, concluding in the early 1500s with commissions for the Augustinian convent in Crema. Relatively recently, in 1992, Mario Marubbi, based on similarities between the signed and dated frescos and a group of illuminations previously associated with Giovan Pietro Birago and attributed to the scriptor Apollonio da Calvisano, reconstructed Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo’s career as an illuminator. He attributed to him the illumination in a series of seven volumes of a sumptuous Antiphonal, completed by the scribe Apollonio da Calvisano in 1498 for the Augustinian convent in Cremona and now in the Archivio Storico Diocesano (Cod. XVI–XXII). Marubbi further identified a handful of cuttings probably for an Augustinian convent in Brescia in 1490 as examples of the first phase of his artistic activity. He also suggested that another group of cuttings for an Augustinian convent in Crema, simultaneous with his last fresco series there in the refectory, represents the final phase of his activity as an illuminator in the first decade of the sixteenth century. His miniature painting shows the influence of his Lombard contemporary Birago, of Emilian manuscript illumination (a sojourn in Padua is proposed), and Cremona monumental painting at the end of the Quattrocento.
8
Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo
Funeral Service, in an initial ‘C’ from a Choir Book Italy, Lombardy, c. 1495–1500
This remarkable initial comes from what must have been a large Choir Book illuminated by Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo. The initial depicts a funeral service: a priest asperges a dead man lying on his bier, dressed and coiffed as a lawyer, two acolytes hold the cross and candles, and six mourners bear witness to the ceremony. The composition stands out for its harmonious palette with bright red and soft blue predominating, the suggestive and painterly modeling of the faces, and the successful restitution of depth, as the scene extends into an atmospheric landscape in which a city emerges in the distance. The multicolored, exuberant initial is also individualistic. Its pink stem and foliage in red, green, and blue are placed on a rectangular ground painted in the imitation of marble, covered with crisp articulated acanthus leaves, highlighted with liquid gold, and framed with black. Appropriate to the Feast of All Souls, the initial ‘C’ with its funeral service introduced the antiphon at Matins on October 31 with the chant “Convertere Domine”
Physical description
145 × 179 mm, trimmed around the initial ‘C; ruled on the verso for at least two lines of script and two 4-line staves, height 33 mm, oneline calligraphic penwork initial touched with yellow; text on the verso: “[non est] in morte que me[or sit tui] … Ps Domine [ne] in furore.”
(Turn thee, O Lord), which was followed by Psalm 6, of which the incipit is on the verso “Domine ne in furore tuo…” (O Lord, rebuke me not…).
Both the decorative features of the initial and the narrative components of the enclosed scene share features with manuscript illumination attributed to Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo. The distinctive short canon of the figures, their small, rounded heads, and expressive facial features underlined in black, characterize miniatures of the early phase; compare the central praying figure in the Funeral Service with the executioner in the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence in Melbourne (Baillieu Library, 60B/5 ) (Fig. 2). Our artist’s characteristic tall trees with their sparse branches widely spaced, present in his frescos, also appear, although not frequently, in miniatures of this early group, such as the Entry into Jerusalem in Milan (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, INF 49) (Fig. 3). The artist’s unique decorative vocabulary can be found in the initial of the Visitation, also from this early group (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, INF 55) (Fig. 4).
Most of these features come together in what must be considered the artist’s chef d’oeuvre, the Antiphonals now in Cremona. The frontispiece of one of the Cremona Antiphonals (Archivio Storico Diocesano, Cod. XVI, f. 4) (Fig. 5) includes an atmospheric landscape receding in the far distance and populated by these strange trees, dotted stones (?) on the grass in the foreground, and crisp acanthus modulated to change colors at the outer edges of the leaves, as well as faux marble columns for the initials. Mario Marubbi notes that the signature acanthus of this artist is adapted from his fresco paintings. There
Fig. 1
Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, Marriage of the Virgin frescoes from Santa Maria Annunciata, Borno
Fig. 2
Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, Initial 'L', Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (Melbourne, Baillieu Library, 60B/5)
are some similarities also with manuscripts said to date from the last phase of the artist’s career, as seen in the manuscript now in Bergamo (Biblioteca Civica, Cassa f. 2.3, f. 10). Mario Marubbi suggests that the cutting likely belongs to the series of dispersed choir books from Brescia. Without a first-hand study of all the disparate cuttings—still poorly published and often not in color—as well as a thorough examination of the series of Antiphonals in Cremona, it is not possible to identify a parent manuscript for our expressive and moving funeral scene, but it surely contributes an important work for the ongoing reconstruction of the career of this distinctive artist.
We are grateful to Milvia Bollati, Mario Marubbi, and Laura Zabeo for their expertise.
Fig. 4
Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, The Visitation (Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, f. 277. INF. 49)
Fig. 3
Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, The Entry into Jerusalem (Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, f. 277. INF. 55)
Provenance
Christie’s, London, 19 November 2003, lot 11; Private Collection California, USA.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: Marubbi 1992, Gnaccolini in Bollati 2004, 301–302.
Fig. 5
Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, Frontispiece from an Antiphonal (Cremona, Archivio Storico Diocesano, Cod. XVI, f. 4v)
Master B.F.
Lombardy, Lodi near Milan, active c. 1490–1545
The Master B.F. headed a workshop that dominated Lombard manuscript illumination for over half a century. He was first christened “Master B.F.” by Paul Wescher in 1931 on the basis of a corpus of widely dispersed manuscripts, fragments, and panels some of which are signed ‘B.F.’ or simply ‘B’. (Fig. 1) The suggestion that these initials stand for “Binasco Fecit” (Binasco made this) and refer to the artist Francesco da Lonate, known as “il Binasco” has not gained widespread acceptance. The body of works, however, are coherent and point to an artist familiar both with the art of Leonardo da Vinci active in Milan c. 1482–1499 and again 1506–1513 and with engravings of Albrecht Dürer of the late 1490s. Derivations from Leonardo in the artist’s manuscript paintings have even earned him the nickname “Leonardo in miniature.” Manuscript illumination attributed to him include secular and religious manuscripts painted in and around Milan from the 1490s on. Among his illustrious clients were the Sforza dukes, French governors, high-ranking ecclesiastics, and various religious houses of the Olivetan, Carthusian, Ambrosian, and Benedictine orders. A few of his noteworthy commissions include a compendium for the kings of France for Cardinal d’Amboise, lieutenant of Milan (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouv. acq. lat. 5939); a Book of Hours for Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, Archbishop of Milan (Modena, Biblioteca Estense α Q.9.31), a Bible donated to the monks of Saint’Ambrogio ad Nemus in Milan (Milan, Biblioteca Capitolare di Sant’Ambrogio, MSS 43, 44); and Choir Books for the Olivetans at Santi’Angelo e Niccolò in Villanova Sillaro near Lodi; the Carthusians, possibly of Garegnano near Milan (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Add. D. 47); and the Benedictines (initials of Benedict and Scholastica, now Abbey of Montecassino).
9
Master B.F.
The Prophet Isaiah, in an initial ‘P’ from a Choir Book Italy, Lodi, early 1500–1510
This is one of a large group of cuttings, now widely dispersed through institutional and private collections in the United States and Europe, that originated in a series of Choir Books made for the Olivetan monastery of Santi’Angelo and Niccolò at Villanova Sillaro near Lodi in Lombardy. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah is displayed in an initial ‘P’ which introduced the Introit to the Mass “Populus Sion” (O people of Zion) for the second Sunday of Advent. Visible on the back of the initial is the conclusion of the offertory and beginning of the communion hymn for the first Sunday of Advent (the feast that preceded the present one). Dressed in a red robe and portrayed with a curly grey beard and long grey hair, Isaiah stands behind a parapet and points toward a manuscript in a blue binding that rests on the ledge. The parapet acts as a kind of altar signifying the Mass, while Isaiah’s gesture and the presence of the book refer to his role as a prophet. Although the scroll is
Physical description
168 × 173 mm; text on verso partially covered by remnants of paper, onto which the cutting was originally glued, the following words are visible: “[confunden]tur. Com.l[Dominus] dabit,” red rubric, two lines of text and music, 4-line stave, height 45 mm; slight craquelure of gold, retouching to small losses from blue background.
blank (in other examples it might include the words “Ecce virgo concipiet” from Isaiah 7:14, (Behold a virgin will conceive), Isaiah’s association with this feast day is appropriate because the four Sundays of Advent, taking place just before Christmas, celebrate the coming of the Lord (Fig. 2).
The series of Choir Books at Villanova Sillaro originally comprised more than twenty volumes that were dispersed after the monastery’s suppression in 1799. Only two of the original volumes remain: a mutilated Antiphonal-Hymnal, along with eleven excised initials remained until the 1970s in Villanova Sillaro (now held in Lodi, Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra); and another, an intact Antiphonal containing the Common of Saints was sold in London (Sotheby’s, December 4, 2007, lot 65). Marco Carminati gives an extensive list of the cuttings, to which Anne-Marie Eze added those coming to light after Carminati’s publication in 1995. Some appeared on the market in the Celotti sale (Christie’s 1825) not long after the monastery’s suppression; others were sold in various offerings of William Ottley’s collection; and some —like this one—were in the Lord Northwick sale. Documents place the execution of the Choir Books in the first decade of the sixteenth century.
Fig. 1
Detail of Master B.F., Initial ‘S’ with The Stoning of Saint Stephen, showing the signature of Master B.F. (Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke)
Fig. 2
Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, Roundel with Isaiah, detail from The Annunciation (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Inv. 1890 nos. 451, 452, 453)
Fig. 3
Master B.F., Initial ‘D’, Noah Directing the Construction of the Ark (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. 56 (94.MS.18), r)
In the Master B.F.’s work, it is rare to find a single figure posed frontally against a solid ground, as is the case with the Prophet Isaiah. Most of his figures portrayed in fluid poses inhabit fantastic mountainous landscapes as in the miniature of Noah Directing the Construction of the Ark (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. 56 (94.MS.18))(Fig. 3). However, the treatment and modeling of the face and garment, as well as the typology of the exuberant initial, not to mention the characteristics of the script and stave on the reverse, leave no doubt that the miniature comes from the same set of Choir Books. Whereas the artist’s familiarity with Leonardo and Dürer is often mentioned, his sources in Milanese illumination have garnered less attention. Yet, the Master B.F. was formed in the milieu of Milanese illuminators such as Giovan Pietro Birago (d. 1514), with whose work he must have been familiar. Compare the leaf by Birago from the Sforza Hours of Saint Gregory Receiving Divine Inspiration as well as the dramatic miniature of the Prophet Isaiah by a related Milanese illuminator, the Master of Anna Sforza or the Master of the Sforza Hours (Switzerland, Private Collection), both painted in the 1490s (Figs. 4 and 5). The date of the Choir Books relatively early in our artist’s career may account for the relationship of the present cutting to the master’s formation in the workshops of Milanese illuminators.
Provenance
John Rushout (1769–1859), 2nd Baron Northwick, sale, Sotheby’s London, November 16, 1925, lot 151; New York, Robert Owen Lehman (1891–1969) by descent to Robert Owen Lehman, Jr. (b. 1936–-) sold privately; Christie’s London, November 23, 2011, lot 8; Private European Collection.
Literature
Published: De Ricci 1937, vol. II, p. 1713, C.17; Palladino 2003, 142–43; Eze in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, no. 36, 360; Related Literature: Carminati 1995.
Fig. 4
Giovan Pietro da Birago, St Gregory the Great in his study, from the Hours of Bona Sforza (London, British Library, Add MS 34294, f. 196v)
Fig. 5
Master of Anna Sforza, Prophet Isaiah (Switzerland, Private Collection)
Magdalena Kremer
Germany, Kirchheim unter Teck (near Stuttgart), c. 1460s?–1501/1502?
It is rare to have much documentary information about a fifteenth-century woman artist, much less a firsthand account. The life and career of Magdalena Kremer (or Kremerin), a nun who participated in the Observant Reform of the Dominican Order in Germany in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, comes to light in two sources. The first is by Johannes Meyer (1422–1485) of Basel who oversaw the reform movement at Kirchheim, and who wrote in 1469 an account of his project. The second is by Magdalena Kremer herself, who in 1490 wrote a chronicle of Kirchheim unter Teck, a Dominican convent founded in 1247 with ties to Dominican convents in Alsace. From the first source, we learn that Magdalena was one of seventeen nuns from Alsace—ten from Strasbourg and another seven from the abbey of Silo Selestat—brought to Bavaria to help institute the reform. The seven from the abbey of Silo, including Magdalena, stayed in Kirchheim. Meyer’s document describes, among them, “a sister who could write textura well, and also paint” (“ein swester … die konde wol textur schriben, und och malen”). In the same document the sister is named “Magdalena Kremerin who came to Silo from Strasbourg” (“… die kam von stroßburg gan syl”). From 1495 to 1501/02, she served as Prioress of the convent, where one of her duties was to see that the convent “be furnished with all the books required for celebration of the liturgy, that they be properly corrected and well written, that their bindings be maintained ….” Two illuminated manuscripts for which she was responsible have survived: a Chapter Book and a Collectar (Sankt Paul im Laventthal, Stiftsbibliothek, MSS 75/1 and 62/1) (Fig. 1). The documents also specify two Choir Books the nuns took with them from Alsace, and Jeffrey Hamburger has suggested that, while supplying the abbey with the necessary manuscripts, Magdalena would surely have made illuminated Choir Books. Fragments from a Choir Book mostly in Munich conform with the style of the Chapter Book and Collectar and are therefore thought to be further works for which she was responsible.
10
Magdalena Kremer (?)
Saint Michael Weighing Souls, in an initial ‘L’ from a Choir Book
Germany, Kirchheim unter Teck or Alsace, c. 1490
This initial from a large Choir Book depicts Saint Michael the Archangel, whose feast is celebrated on September 29. Executed in burnished gold on a blue, star-filled ground, the initial encloses an image of a rosy-cheeked, blond Saint Michael holding a cross-topped staff and a pair of scales, with a soul in one pan and the devil trying to pull down the other one. It is unclear what chant the ‘L’ introduces, but the reverse includes text for the offertory for this feast, so the Choir Book was likely a Gradual.
Physical description
138 × 120 mm, cut to shape; text and square musical notation on a 4-line stave, height 25 mm on reverse: “Stetit angelus iux[ta aram templi] habens thuribu[lum aureum in] manu sua …”
A tentative attribution can be made to Magdalena Kremer, who practiced an imported Alsatian style in a German convent south of Stuttgart. Jeffrey Hamburger has published the manuscripts linked with her: a Chapter Book, a Collectar, and a series of Choir Book initials from at least two dismantled Choir Books. Although the somewhat naïve style is generic, Hamburger laid out a detailed list of stylistic peculiarities he associated with Magdalena herself. They include the presence of gold stars on a celestial blue background, long flaxen hair of the females articulated with a network of red lines, certain features of the face such as contour of the nose rising unbroken to one eyebrow and the heavy-lidded eyes, rosy-red cheeks, and somewhat stiff drawing. All these characteristics are present in the fragment of Saint Michael, as well as a similar delineation of the landscape with red tipped flowers and lily-of-the valleys. Compare the Munich fragments of the Adoration of the Magi for the initial (Graphische Sammlung, k. 512, inv. no. 39850) and Jacob’s Ladder for the background, faces, and landscape (Graphische Sammlung, k. 510, inv. no.
Illuminated page with Initial ‘A’, from a Dominican Breviary from Alsace (Unterlinden?) (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Richardson 39, f. 227v)
Fig. 1
Magdalena Kremer, Tree of Jesse, from a Collectar (St. Paul im Laventthal, Stiftsbibliothek, MSS 62/1, f. 1r)
Fig. 5
39848) (Figs. 2 and 3). The miniature is also particularly close in style to a cutting of Saint John the Baptist (Sotheby's, London, July 2, 2013, lot 30) (Fig. 4). Without further research, we cannot be sure the initial of Saint Michael is by Magdalena, for as Hamburger also noted her style survives in contemporary manuscripts in Alsace, such as a wonderful Dominican Breviary from Alsace (Unterlinden in Colmar?) now in Cambridge Massachusetts (Harvard University Library, Richardson MS 39) (Fig. 5). Other clusters of related manuscripts include a group of Dominican cuttings more monochrome than ours, once thought to be Austrian but now considered Alsatian (Peter Kidd), as well manuscripts by Sybilla von Bondorf, a Dominican nun of Freiburg and Strasbourg. The separation and localization of these clusters of “nonnenarbeiten” (nun's work) awaits further research to be sure of proposed attributions.
We are grateful to Jeffrey Hamburger for his expertise.
2
Kremer (?), Initial ‘H’, Adoration of the Magi (Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, inv. 39850Z)
Fig.
Magdalena
Provenance
London, Collection of Dr. Alfred (1900–1965) and Felicie Scharf (1901–1991).
Literature
Unpublished; Related literature: Frings and Gerschow 2005, cat. 2005, no. 467; Hamburger in Linenthal et al. 2010, 124–49.
Magdalena Kremer (?), Initial ‘F’, Saint John the Baptist (Sotheby's, London, 2 July 2013, lot 30)
The Master of Mary of Burgundy
Southern Netherlands, likely Ghent, c. 1470-1485
The Master of Mary of Burgundy was originally named after two manuscripts: a manuscript in Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett, MS 78 B 12) made for the young Mary of Burgundy and her husband Maximilian I between c. 1477 and 1482, and another manuscript in Vienna also made for Mary of Burgundy c. 1470–1475 (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1857). As far as we know, these are the only two manuscripts she owned. Mary was the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and when her father was killed in battle in 1477, she became a wealthy, sought-after heiress, who in that same year at the age of nineteen married Maximilan of Austria, heir to the Holy Roman Empire. At the age of twenty-five, while hunting on horseback, she fell from her horse and died, an event that is foreseen in an uncanny way in a disturbing scene in her Berlin Hours (Fig. 1). Otto Pächt in 1948 devoted a classic monograph to the artist, who opened an “entirely new chapter in the history of Flemish illumination” with his illusionistic borders and miniatures. Scholars have subsequently distinguished between the styles of the Berlin and Vienna manuscripts, and in 1998, Bodo Brinkmann separated the artist’s work into two groups which he identified as the Berlin and Vienna Masters of Mary of Burgundy, taking their names from the two eponymous manuscripts. Unresolved issues remain about the roles, as well as the oeuvre, of these two illuminators and related artists, and “we might still after all be dealing with a single personality” (de Hamel 2018, 147). Generally, work by the Vienna Master is regarded as more atmospheric with richly textured detail and composed with more delicate draftsmanship. The Berlin Master in his frequent use of designs of the Vienna Master is considered a fine colorist who achieved sparkling light effects. Both artists were most probably active in Ghent and are associated with Netherlandish painters, the Berlin artist with Hugo van der Goes and the Vienna Master with Joos van Ghent.
11
Berlin(?) Master of Mary of Burgundy
Triumph of David, leaf from a Book of Hours
Southern Netherlands, Ghent, c. 1480
This lyrical illumination illustrates the Triumph of David; it probably prefaced the beginning of the Seven Penitential Psalms in a Book of Hours. Painted in pastel colors against an atmospheric landscape, the Israelite women sing and play musical instruments before the city gate as they greet the victorious David: “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (Samuel 18: 6–7). David is outfitted as a young shepherd boy, bearing the head of the slain Goliath aloft on his sword. The armies of the Israelites and the Philistines are faintly visible in the atmospheric background from which emerge the soft outlines of a town, while the high empty sky forms a remarkable illusion of infinite space rising upward.
Physical description
153 × 110 mm; blank on the verso.
Whether the artist responsible for the Triumph of David is the Berlin or the Vienna Master, he certainly exhibits thorough familiarity with models from the closest circle of the Master of Mary of Burgundy. Compare the same scene of David advancing toward the women of Israel with the head of Goliath on the tip of his sword in the delightful Hours of Engelbrecht of Nassau, lieutenant of Burgundy under Maximilan, probably painted around 1480–1490 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 219) (Fig. 2). A rare model sheet of the same subjects in Paris (École nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Mas. 2235) shows in the specimen initial David and Goliath in the same poses as they appear in the background of the Triumph of David (Fig. 3). The figures appear again, similarly posed, in the miniature of this subject in the Berlin Hours (f. 190v). In the lower right of the Paris sheet, the vignette of David with the women of Israel is nearly identical to our miniature in practically the smallest of details.
Other features of the Triumph of David relate it very closely to the artist responsible for the Berlin Hours. A similar effect of the atmospheric landscape and the high empty sky with light on the horizon is achieved by the artist in his miniature of Saint Apollonia in the Berlin Hours (f. 338v) (Fig. 4). Likewise, the portrayal of the Israelite women in their fashionable costumes and headdresses are like Susannah (f. 340v) also in the Berlin Hours (Fig. 5). In the same manuscript (f. 190v), David and Goliath come into the foreground, posed just as they are in the background of the Triumph of David (and in the Paris model sheet), and even the contours of the architecture in the townscape are the same, if portrayed with greater clarity (Fig. 6).
Alas, we have not yet found a Book of Hours from the Master of Mary of Burgundy group that lacks its miniature of the Seven Penitential Psalms. But the recovery of the present miniature offers fodder for the debate about attribution while strengthening the association between the two hands.
Fig. 2
David advancing toward the women of Israel with the head of Goliath on the tip of his sword, Hours of Engelbert of Nassau (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 220, f. 190v)
Fig. 1
Master of Mary of Burgundy, David advancing toward the women of Israel with the head of Goliath on the tip of his sword, from the Hours of Engelbert of Nassau (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 220, f. 190v)
Provenance
Ambroise Firmin Didot (1790–1876), Paris, France, Catalogue des livres précieux, manuscrits, et imprimés faisant partie de la Bibliothèque de M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, June 10–14 June, 1884, through descent; Les Enluminures, 1999; James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell, Kansas City, MO, 1999–2017; Sandra Hindman, The Art Institute of Chicago, on deposit, 2018–2024; exhibited 27 January to 28 May 2018.
Literature
Published: de Hamel and Westerby 2018 no. 13, 144–55; Related Literature: Pächt 1948; König et al. 1998; Kren and McKendrick 2003.
sheet with David and Goliath (Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Mas. 2235)
Master of Mary of Burgundy, Susannah and the Elders, from the Hours of Mary of Burgundy and Emperor Maximilian (Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, MS 78 B 12, f. 340v)
Berlin Master of Mary of Burgundy, David and Goliath, from the Hours of Mary of Burgundy and Emperor Maximilian (Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, MS 78 B 12, f. 190v)
Fig. 3
Model
Fig. 4
Berlin Master of Mary of Burgundy, Saint Apollonia, from the Hours of Mary of Burgundy and Emperor Maximilian (Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, MS 78 B 12, f. 338v)
Fig. 6
Fig. 4
Berlin
Maestro Daddesco
Italy, Florence, active 1315–1330s
The exact identity of the Maestro Daddesco remains unknown despite the artist’s commissions for the illumination of a large number of significant Choir Books for important foundations mostly in or near Florence, including the Cathedral, the Abbey of Saints Salvatore and Laurence in Badia a Settimo, a Dominican female house (later Sant Maria Novella), the Church of Santo Stefano al Ponte in Florence, and others. Originally named the Maestro Daddesco by Mario Salmi for his stylistic association with panel paintings by Bernardo Daddi (active c. 1312–1348), he was subsequently renamed the Maestro Pre-Daddesco, when it was realized that manuscripts attributed to the illuminator pre-dated the earliest paintings by Bernardo Daddi. The notname Maestro Daddesco is, however, retained today to refer to a large body of work produced over about two decades that includes not only illuminated manuscripts but, according to Miklós Boskovits, a few panel paintings. At least sixteen Choir Books can be associated with the artist. The earliest of these made for the Cistercians at the Badia a Settimo located in the town of Scandicci in the Province of Florence seems to be the artist’s earliest known work in c. 1315, because it includes a colophon indicating the text was completed then (and the illuminations were probably begun only shortly thereafter); and the latest are the manuscripts for the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS it. 543) completed in the 1330s, probably no later than 1334. He and his workshop frequently collaborated with other artists, including the Maestro del Laudario, the Master of the Codex of Saint George, and the so-called Pacinesque illuminators. The largest group of cuttings by the Maestro Daddesco comes to us from the collection of Lord Kenneth Clark (d. 1983) and preceding him from the Scottish antiquary James Dennistoun (d. 1855) (Fig. 1). It is worth noting, as Bryan Keene has signaled, that not all the surviving cuttings can be definitively associated with surviving parent manuscripts (for a list of cuttings that lack a firm original context see Keene 2021, 119, no. 10). Laurence B. Kanter called the Maestro Daddesco “the most significant miniaturist in Florence in the second quarter of the fourteenth century.”
12
Maestro Daddesco
Saint Peter, in an initial ‘O’ from an Antiphonal Italy, Florence, c. 1331–1334
The manuscript painting depicts a formidable and expressive Saint Peter in an initial ‘O’ beginning with the chant “O Roman felix” (O happy Rome), which is a hymn for the Office of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29). Portrayed half-length and wearing the papal tiara, Peter gazes in the distance as he turns in three-quarter view to the right, while he holds a pair of glittering keys in his right hand and a blue-bound manuscript in his left hand. The brilliant orange of his robe is emphasized using the same orange shade of the initial, whose contours are executed in pale pink, yellow, green, and blue.
Physical description
c. 87 × 86 mm, cut to shape; verso 4-line stave, height 22 mm, 2 lines of stave and text “//o[?] nobis be/ digni effici//,” ‘no. 19’ written in pencil in top center.
Acquired by the Scottish antiquary James Dennistoun in Florence in 1837, this initial was included in an album of manuscript leaves and cuttings that Dennistoun composed during his Italian voyages to constitute a sort of history of art through illumination. It was Dennistoun himself who recorded that this and the related initials come from a Choir Book from the Cathedral of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore; they belonged “to a book in the choir from the Cathedral of Florence; they are of the same age as it, but the style imitates rather that of the Gaddis, the best pupils of Giotto who somewhat enlarged his manner.” Dennistoun’s collection, which went by succession to one of his relatives, was later acquired by the renowned art historian Lord Kenneth Clark of Saltwood, who placed the cuttings in another set of albums and after whose death in 1984 it was dispersed (London, Sotheby’s, June 27, 1984, lot 78, ill.).
The cutting is from the same Choir Book as seven other initials formerly in Dennistoun’s, then Clark’s collections, including the Annunciation (Fig. 1), the Birth of the Virgin (Fig. 2), Saint Peter (in a ‘D’) now in the collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke, Saint Paul (Fig. 3), a Virgin Martyr, and a decorated initial ‘S’. These were first attributed in 1986 by Tartuferi to Maestro Daddesco. Our cutting is remarkably close to its slightly larger sister fragment of Saint Peter (in an ‘O’) (Fig. 4). Not only do they share the
Fig. 4
Maestro Daddesco, Initial ‘D’, Saint Peter (Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke)
Fig. 3
Maestro Daddesco, Initial ‘O’, Saint Peter (Private Collection)
same pose and treatment of the aging pope-saint with a full beard, eyebrows, rosy cheeks, and wrinkles around the eyes and forehead, they also display the same technique. The illuminator applied a blue-grey, wash-like layer on top of which are painted reds, browns, and whites for the complexion. In addition to gold leaf, Maestro Daddesco used chemically synthesized gold pigment aurum musicum, known as mosaic gold, which can be seen in the keys held by Saint Peter and in his rectangular collar, pallium, and papal tiara, as an analysis reported by Keene uncovered.
Keene has noted the similarities of this set of initials to two related Choir Books, an Antiphonal and a Gradual, from the Cathedral in Florence (Archivio storico dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, L.2. n.2 and M.2.n. 1), both alas damaged in the flood of 1966, as well as a sumptuous Missal from the Cathedral (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Edili 107) (Fig. 5). The latter includes a reference to the bodily relics of Saint Zenobius only exhumed in 1331 and an image of the Cathedral without its bell tower, added in 1334. This allows us to date the set of related initials to the closely circumscribed dates of 1331–1334.
Maestro Daddesco, Initial ‘H’, Birth of the Virgin (Private Collection)
Provenance
Edinburgh, Scotland, James Dennistoun (1803–1844); Auckland Castle, County Durham, England, Isabella Caroline Hensley-Henson (1869–1949); Saltwood Castle, Kent, England, Lord Kenneth McKenzie Clark (1903–1983), his sale, London, Sotheby’s, July 27, 1984, lot 78, ill.; Rauris Austria, Zeileis Collection; Private Collection, Switzerland.
Literature
Published: Tartuferi 1986a, nos. 12 and 13, 45–46; Tartuferi 1986b, no. 441, 18, no. 39; Keene in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, 120; Related Literature: Hindman et al. 2001, 80-81, 87; Kanter in Bollati 2004, 445–46; Sciacca 2012.
Fig. 5
Maestro Daddesco, Initial ‘S’, Miracles from the Life of Saint Zenobius (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Edili 107, f. 367)
Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret
France, Thérouanne (?), active c. 1400
The Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret takes his new eponymous name from a manuscript in the Morgan Library, likely a fragment of a Book of Hours of seventy-five folios with two full-page illuminations, six historiated initials, and many full borders (New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.947) (Figs. 4 and 5). Little known in the literature apart from publications by Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, this manuscript was probably illuminated in Northern France, perhaps in Thérouanne, by an artist with tendencies “toute flamande” related to the artist Jean Semont. Vanwijnsberghe compared the leaves of the Bute-Soissons Hours with two illuminated devotional manuscripts of around 1400 for the use of Thérouanne (Arras, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 822; Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa, MS Boz 29). To the “Thérouanne Group” should be added the leaves from the Bute-Soissons Hours, but they are more inventive than those in the Morgan volume. Earlier scholars Millard Meiss, Erwin Panofsky, and L. M. J. Delaissé referenced many of these anonymous illuminators around the year 1400 as representatives of the International Style, who brought northern realism to France—to Arras, Rouen, Paris—and who translated the style of pre-Eyckian painters like Melchior Broederlam into illumination. Whether this artist was local to the Arras region or a migrant from further north remains an open question. The figures that burst out of the frame, for example in the Adoration of the Magi (f. 74v) or in Saint George and the Dragon (f. 16) in the Bute-Soissons manuscript recall Dutch illumination of the same period, such as the Master of Margaret of Cleves in the Hours of Margaret of Cleves and the Biblia Pauperum (Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, MS LA 148 and London, British Library, Kings MS 5). Further systematic study of related compositions with panel paintings and illumination in Northern Europe around 1400 is essential. Unfortunately, the complete destruction of Thérouanne, ordered by Charles V in 1553, does not facilitate our understanding of manuscript illumination in what was once an affluent town.
13
Workshop of the Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret
Christ Appears to Saint James the Lesser, leaf from the Bute-Soissons Hours
Northern France, Thérouanne (?), c. 1400
This refined leaf portrays an unusual subject, Christ (as God the Father) appearing to Saint James the Lesser. According to Corinthians I 15:7, after the Resurrection Jesus appeared “to James, then to all the apostles.” An episode in the Golden Legend expands on the biblical text. James vowed to eat nothing until the Resurrection, after which Jesus came to him, blessed some bread, and gave it to him, saying: “Rise, my brother, and eat, because the Son of Man has risen.” The leaf comes from an important Book of Hours, where it
Physical description
151 × 116 mm; foliated ‘27’ in the top right corner of the blank verso, some cockling.
illustrated the Suffrage to Saint James the Lesser, a section of the manuscript placed just before the Hours of the Virgin.
The Bute-Soissons Book of Hours, from which this leaf comes, was once part of the distinguished collection of the Marquess of Bute, acquired in 1983 by Hans P. Kraus and dismembered. Twenty-three full-page illuminations, all on inserted leaves, are attributed here to the workshop of the Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret. Only a few of these leaves have resurfaced: an opening initial in the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. 2005.203) (Fig. 1), several text leaves (Bloomsbury, London, July 6, 2021, lot 35), and two other full-page miniatures: Adoration of the Magi (Private Collection) (Fig. 2) and the Visitation (Les Enluminures) (Fig. 3). Written for the rare liturgical use of Soissons (hence the “Bute-Soissons” Hours), the deluxe parent manuscript must have been a special commission for someone of significant status, for example, Enguerrand VII de Coucy, Count of Soissons (1367–1397) or his daughter Marie I de Coucy, who succeeded him (1398–1404).
The scene is set on a thin strip of land against a rich diaper background. The elongated figure of Christ as God the Father holding a globe appears on the left, gesturing toward Saint James who is seated on a burnished golden throne on the right. The throne bursts out of the frame, as is typical of miniatures in this manuscript, combining the Gothic International Style for the figures with “northern realism” for the compositions (Fig. 2). Both faces are modeled on a colored ground, the facial features suggested with thick brushstrokes of red and white pigment and thin strokes of black ink. These stylistic characteristics can be recognized in the slightly earlier Prayer Book and Life of Saint Margaret in the Morgan Library and Museum (MS M. 947). In the Morgan manuscript, the historiated initials display comparable features in the drawing of the swirling draperies, the soft application of colors, and the painterly modeling of the faces (Fig. 5). The Morgan Life and the text leaves of the Bute-Soissons Hours share the same extravagant borders, with a dense network of ivy leaves, associated with tight swirls of black ink (Figs. 1 and 4). As suggested in the preceding biography, the origins of this dramatic and moving style should be sought in the fertile artistic experiments in the North and South Netherlands around 1400.
We are grateful to Elliot Adam for his expertise.
Fig. 2
Workshop of the Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret, Adoration of the Magi, leaf from the Bute-Soissons Hours (Private Collection)
Fig. 1
Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret, Initial ‘D’, leaf from the Bute-Soissons Hours (Cleveland, Museum of Art, The Jeanne Miles Blackburne Collection, 2005.203)
Provenance (?) Enguerrand VII de Coucy, Count of Soissons (1367–1397) or his daughter Marie I de Coucy, who succeeded him (1398–1404); John CrichtonStuart (1847–1900), third Marquess of Bute, or John Stuart (1713–1792), third Earl of Bute, or his namesake and heir John Stuart, first Marquess (1744–1814); recorded in the Bute library catalogue of 1896 for St. John’s Lodge, Regent’s Park, London, as MS 128 (G. 23); sale Sotheby’s London, Catalogue of the Bute Collection of FortyTwo Illuminated Manuscripts and Miniatures, June 13, 1983, lot 6; Hans P. Kraus (1907–1988), New York, acquired at the Bute sale and dismembered; Private Collection, France.
Literature
Published: Parent manuscript published in Sotheby’s 1983, lot 6; Ferrini et al. 1987, no. 73. Fliegel 1999, no. 20. Related Literature: Panofsky 1953; Meiss 1967; Delaissé 1968; Vanwijnsberghe 2007, 213, figs. 342–43; Vanwijnsberghe and Verroken 2017, vol. I, no. 93.2007, 111.
Fig. 3
Workshop of the Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret, the Visitation, leaf from the Bute-Soissons Hours (Les Enluminures)
Fig. 4
Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret, Franciscan Monk in prayer from Prayer book and life of St. Margaret (New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.947, 3r)
Fig. 5
Master of the Morgan Life of Saint Margaret, Initial ‘D’, Throne of Mercy from Prayer book and life of St. Margaret (New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.947, f. 39v)
Anonymous German Painter
Six Scenes of the Day of Creation, leaf from a Psalter (?) Germany, Regensburg (?), Upper Rhine (?), c. 1300
This full-page miniature of the days of Creation (from Genesis 1–2) does not depict the days in exact chronology. Here we find, reading counter clockwise from the upper left: day four, God creating the sun, moon, and stars; day three, God separating the land from the waters; days three, five, and six, God creating vegetation, animals, and birds; day five, God creating fish; day six, God creating Eve from Adam’s rib; day seven, God resting, enthroned by angels. In each appearance, God is robed in a red mantle over a blue robe, his blue halo outlined in white. Outlined in black, the diminutive figures have curly blond hair, their facial features sketched in black with rosy cheeks drawn in close parallel lines. The sparse settings are set against a gold ground, and the miniature presents like an independent picture with a thick blue frame, bordered by a white line on the interior and black and yellow lines on the exterior.
Although naïve in its conception, the miniature conveys considerable charm, and yet both its stylistic origin and its context within a parent manuscript remain mysterious. Since the leaf first came to light, scholars have puzzled over its origin. In 1936, Hanns Swarzenski assigned it the “Upper RhineSwitzerland.” Then, in 1979, it was called Strasbourg by Johannes Zahlten, an attribution adopted by Prisca Oberfell in 1995, although neither author brought forward stylistic comparanda. In 2011, Cordula Maria Kessler suggested the Upper Rhine, without further stylistic commentary. Most recently in the magisterial catalogues of the McCarthy Collection, Peter Kidd, on the basis of the doll-like proportions, placid facial expressions, and the rose cheeks, has compared it to miniatures in the same collection that are ascribed to the German-Swiss border (Fig. 1). The possibility of exploring an origin in Regensburg was raised in discussion with Jeffrey Hamburger. Indeed, comparison of our doll-like figures, the treatment of the faces including the parallel lines defining the pink cheeks, the typology and color scheme of the haloes, and the rendering of the plant life are remarkably similar in our miniature and initials from a dismantled Antiphonal now assigned to Heilig Kreuz around 1310 in Regensburg (Figs. 2 and 3).
Just what type of manuscript our miniature illustrated is unknown. Blank on the verso, the leaf itself bears no clues, except that its proportions suggest it was a stand-alone leaf rather than part of a larger page. Typically, initials of the Creation (for “In principio”) preface a text in thirteenth-century Bibles, but this cannot be the case (Fig. 4). There are instances of picture books, in
Physical description
c. 145 × 105 mm, blank on the reverse except for the McCarthy inventory number ‘BM 1488,’ minor flaking of pigment and goldleaf.
which a full-page miniature of the Creation is one of many scenes, such as in the interesting picture album attributed to William de Brailes in the Walters Art Museum (W.106) (Fig. 5) now thought to be extracted from a Psalter made in Oxford around 1350 (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Ms. B.2010). In our opinion, the most likely candidate is a prefatory cycle from a Psalter, which sometimes contained a full-page picture of the Days of Creation, such as in the magnificent Stammheim Missal (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS 64) (Fig. 6). With further research, perhaps the parent manuscript will one day come to light.
We are grateful to Jeffrey Hamburger for his expertise.
Fig. 1
Initial ‘S’, Adam and Eve and the souls of the Blessed being freed by Christ from Hell (The McCarthy Collection)
Fig. 2
Initial ‘C’, Christ on the Mount of Olives (London, Sotheby’s, lot 25, 8 July 2014)
Fig. 3
Initial ‘E’, Circumcision of Christ (Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.754.A)
Provenance
Alfred Strölin (1871–1954), Lausanne, Switzerland (by 1936); Private Collection, exhibited Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe 1998, in Dr. Jörn Günther, Blicke in Verborgene Schatzkammern: Mittelalterliche Handschriften und Miniaturen aus Hamburger Sammlungen, 1998, no. 16 (col. ill.); Sam Fogg, London; Robert McCarthy, London and Hong Kong, acquired in 2003.
Literature
Published: Swarzenski 1936, vol. I, 54, n. 1, vol. II, fig. 611; Zahlten 1979, 255; Obergfell 1995, 198–200, fig. 9; Kessler 2011, no. 24, 274–75; Kidd 2019, vol. II, no. 57, 224–25; Related Literature: Mütherich 1987; Hamburger et al. 2016; Kidd 2018.
Fig. 5
William de Brailes, The first two days of Creation (Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.106, f.1r)
Fig. 6
The Creation of the World, from the Stammheim Missal (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. 64 (97.MG.21), f.10v)
Fig. 4
William de Brailes, Initial ‘I’, Opening of the Genesis from the Bible (Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, MS. Lat. bib. e. 7., f. 5r)
Maestro Orcagnesco
Italy, Florence, active 1345–1370
Active in Florence for more than two decades, the Maestro Orcagnesco emerges as one of the most idiosyncratic and intriguing of the Tuscan illuminators working in the third quarter of the fourteenth century. Gaudenz Freuler reconstructed his career, beginning with an early work, a Temptation of Job in an Antiphonal in Florence (Museum of San Marco, Cod. 564, f. 13v). Freuler dated this work around 1345–1350 and saw in it the influence of the Master of the Dominican Effigies and Jacopo del Casentino (1330–1380), in whose milieu he proposed the artist was probably trained (Fig. 1). The artist’s major work, a once richly illuminated Antiphonal reconstructed by Freuler, survives in more than twenty cuttings, of which the majority are in the Kupferstichkabinett of Berlin (mins. 639, 642–645, 650, 676–680, 685, 1243, 1244). In these cuttings, the artist manifests an interest in lively narratives, expressive energetic figures, elongated facial types with pronounced pupils in large eyes, and flat decorative designs for the initials with surrounding fanciful ornamentation. He also exhibits a deep familiarity with the work of Andrea Orcagna (1320–1368), the prominent Florentine painter, sculptor, and architect active at mid-century—hence his notname (Fig. 2). At the same time, some of his ornamentation recalls that of the Neapolitan school of illumination, for example Cristoforo Orimina (fl. 1335–1360), the best-known illuminator of the Angevin court of Naples. Beatrice Alai explains these Neapolitan influences by the sojourn of a Tuscan painter, Niccolò di Tommaso, in Casaluce, and she notes further a Bolognese influence in two of the fragments of the dismantled Antiphonal. Alai concludes that the Maestro Orcagnesco’s eclectic Tuscan style skillfully blends central and southern Italian tendencies with a reinterpretation of the monumental art of Andrea Orcagna in manuscript illumination.
15
Maestro Orcagnesco
The Entry into Jerusalem, in an initial ‘M’ from a Choir Book
Italy, Florence, c. 1360–1370
One of more than twenty cuttings from a dismantled Antiphonal containing the Proper of Time and the Saints, this initial ‘M’ illustrates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem which took place a few days before his Crucifixion. Narrated in all four Gospels, Jesus Christ rides into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. As he enters the city, the crowd throws down palm branches (note the boy in the tree on the left) and lays down cloaks on the ground (behind the vertical bar of the initial) to celebrate the coming of the savior, the “king,” our Lord. According to the Gospels of Mark and Luke, he rode into town on a donkey, but here he rides a frisky colt, the animal described in Matthew; it is Matthew also who mentions two animals, the second of which appears in our initial just behind the mount Jesus rides. The flat blue acanthus outlined in white and pink ornament with white tracery is surrounded by a highly burnished gold ground bordered by gold circular and oval bezants.
Physical description
c. 152 × 158 mm, cut to shape; verso, two 4-line staves, height 33 mm; text: “corde. p. Veni/ Tulerunt lapi…” (for Passion Sunday); rubric in red, small initial with black penwork infill, large initial ‘T’ blue with red penwork.
Although the Entry into Jerusalem is usually commemorated in the Christian liturgy on Palm Sunday in Holy Week before Easter, none of the liturgical chants for this feast begins with the letter ‘M’. Thus, it most likely introduced the antiphon of the third Nocturn of Passion Sunday with the words (Matthew 26:18): “Magister dicit: Tempus meum prope est apud te facio Pascha cum discipulis meis...” (Jesus said: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples). The illustration of this chant with the Entry into Jerusalem is appropriate because it begins his Passion and introduces Holy Week. Our cutting falls in a sequence reconstructed by Freuler, and subsequently studied by Alai, right before the Resurrection of Christ (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, min 685) from the Easter series (Fig. 3). Other scenes depicted for Lent and Easter also employ atypical narratives to accompany the chants for specific feasts, confirming Freuler’s judgement that commission for the Choir Books was a prestigious one, requiring special instructions, with the result that the completed volumes display a high degree of originality.
There can be no question that this initial fits securely with the others in the group published by Freuler and reassessed by Alai. Compare the structure of the initial, its ornamentation, the stature and treatment of the figures, the facial types, blue ground, and the palette with another initial ‘M’ from the same series, the Beheading of John the Baptist and the Feast of Salome (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, min 1244) (Fig. 4). The latter initial, along with David in Prayer (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, min 679) (Fig. 5) and three others display some distinctive stylistic features that led Freuler to suggest that they underwent an early, still-medieval restoration. Upon further consideration, however, we now believe that a different hand intervened, perhaps completing work that was left unfinished; his modifications appear in the stark white modeling of the folds in the drapery of the figures and in the blue acanthus of these initials. As additional cuttings and even intact volumes by this individualistic workshop come to light, the separation of hands, the identification of parent volumes, and the study of their sources will bear further fruit.
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.
Maestro Orcagnesco, Initial ‘S’, Temptation (Florence, Museum of San Marco, Cod. 564, f. 13v)
3
Maestro Orcagnesco, Initial ‘A’, Resurrection of Christ and Noli me tangere (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, min 685)
Fig.
Fig.
Fig. 4
Maestro Orcagnesco, Initial ‘M’, the Beheading of John the Baptist and the Feast of Salome (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, min1244)
Fig. 5
Maestro Orcagnesco, Initial ‘N’, David in Prayer (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum, min 679)
Fig. 2
Andrea di Cione (Orcagna), Hell, detail from the Triumph of Death Frescoes from Santa Croce Museum, Refectory, Florence
Girolamo dai Libri
Italy, Verona, 1475–c. 1555
From a family of illuminators, the “dai Libri” or “of the books,” Girolamo was the son of Francesco dai Libri (c. 1452–1505) and the grandson of Stefano dai Libri (documented 1433–1475). The three generations of dai Libri dominated Veronese illumination for nearly a century; Vasari claimed for Francesco Choir Books made for specific churches and monasteries in Verona, as well as the organ doors and frescos in the choir of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria in Organo, between 1491 and 1502. Girolamo probably began his career there, for he is first documented in a payment record dated 1495 from the monks of Santa Maria Organo. Although no signed work by Girolamo survives, a signed work by Francesco in a manuscript dated 1503 states: “Et magister Franciscus miniator de sancto paulo Veronae miniavit” (And Master Francesco illuminator of St. Paul’s of Verona illuminated this) (Padua, Biblioteca del Seminario, MS 432, f. 112v).
Thanks to extensive research by Gino Castiglioni and Hans-Joachim Eberhardt in 1986 (and subsequently), two bodies of works, not always completely distinct, have been grouped around the names of the father Francesco and son Girolamo. They have identified five of the seven choir books mentioned by Vasari with a few manuscripts and many existing fragments. A group of six books datable from 1492 to 1502 form a chronological anchor. The stylistically related cuttings from the Santa Maria in Organo Choir Books, now in the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona, provide firm evidence for dating the early phase of Girolamo’s career, rooted in the statuesque figures of Mantegna but with pale and delicate tonalities. Notable works in the 1490s include fragments such as Holy Women at the Tomb in an initial ‘A’ (New York, Metropolitan Museum, acc. no. 62.122.17) and the ex-Breslauer Pentecost (T. Robert and Katherine States Burke). An illuminated Gradual dates c. 1520 (Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1921.140); and from the 1530s there is a stunning illuminated Gradual (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Ross. 1194) (Fig. 1). In later years, Girolamo’s style becomes increasingly complex, the statuesque figures set in more elaborate landscapes with exuberant border decoration filled with Renaissance grottesche .
16
Girolamo dai Libri
Pentecost, in an initial ‘D’ from a Choir Book
Italy, Verona, c. 1490s
This lovely initial ‘D’ houses a scene of Pentecost. The nearly full-length apostles gather around the Virgin in the center foreground as golden rays descend from a heavenly cloud that represents the Holy Spirit. As the rays reach the heads of the apostles, they turn into small flames or tongues of fire, metaphors of speech, that symbolically fill the apostles with divine inspiration enabling them to carry forth the word of God. The intimate scene conveys a sense of tranquility, the Virgin’s head slightly lowered, and her hands clasped in prayer, while the apostles serenely glance at one another or pray devoutly,
Physical description 95 × 100 mm, mounted on card.
conveying a sense of inward spirituality. The modelling is soft, the features delicate, as the group occupies a horror vacui with no depiction of a realistic space, against a rich blue sky, in which the crystals of pulverized lapis lazuli remain visible. The initial begins the first Matins response for Pentecost, a feast celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter, with the words “Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes…” (When the day of Pentecost had come).
The miniature must date early in dai Libri’s career, probably in the 1490s, as proposed by Gaudenz Freuler. The soft, delicate modeling, the compact composition, the relatively simple ornament forming the initial compare closely with the ex-Breslauer Pentecost as well as the Metropolitan Museum Holy Women at the Tomb (Figs. 2 and 3). It was during this period that Francesco and Girolamo often worked together, and it is not always easy to distinguish one from another in the 1490s. In this regard, compare our Pentecost with a closely related bas-de-page fragment of the Dormition of
Fig. 1
Girolamo Dai Libri, Initial ‘A’, from a Gradual (Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1921.140)
the Virgin (Sotheby’s London, December 6, 2016, lot 7) (Fig. 4) published by Mara Hofmann as a work from the 1490s by Francesco or Girolamo dai Libri. As in our cutting, there is a narrative of deep heartfelt pain, conveyed through the varying poses of the apostles, some of which are nearly identical to those portrayed in the present work—the responsibility of Girolamo. The scene is set in an atmospheric landscape with classical elements a la Mantegna— thanks to Francesco.
This group of early works compares favorably with illuminations in an Antiphonal for Saints Nazarius and Celsus in Verona that is localized and dated 1492 by an inscription. Gino Castiglione has attributed the volume to a collaboration between the father and son in the 1490s (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, MSL/1866/4929) (Fig. 5).
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.
Fig. 3
Girolamo Dai Libri, Initial ‘A’, Holy Women at the Tomb (New York, The Metropolitan Museum, acc. no. 62.122.17)
Fig. 2
Girolamo Dai Libri, Initial ‘D’, Pentecost (Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke)
Provenance
London Art Market 2017; Private Collection, Switzerland.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: Castiglioni and Eberhardt in Castiglioni and Marinelli 1986, 239–58; Paladino 2003, no. 67, 139; Castiglioni in Marinelli and Marini 2006, 20–33; Castiglioni in Marini et al. 2010, 293–94; Castiglioni 2011, 139–71; Watson 2011, vol. II, no. 120, 640–42; Szépe in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, 399–407.
Francesco and Girolamo dai Libri, Initial ‘A’, from Antiphonal for Saints Nazarius and Celsus in Verona (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, MSL/1866/4929, f.1r)
Fig. 4
Francesco or Girolamo dai Libri, Dormition of the Virgin (London, Sotheby’s, 6 December 2016, lot 7)
Fig. 5
Maestri of the Bibbia Istoriata Padovana
Italy, Padua, active c. 1390–1415/20
This group of illuminators is named for their most significant work, a magnificent Picture Bible now divided in two parts (London, British Library, Add. MS 15277 and Rovigo, Biblioteca dell’Accademia dei Concordi, MS 212) (Fig. 1). Commissioned perhaps by the Lord of Padua, Francesco Novello da Carrara, the manuscript presents seven books of the Old Testament translated into the Paduan dialect and accompanied by more than eight hundred scenes. Several artists (e.g. First Master of Genesis, Second Master of Genesis) worked on the extensive cycle, and they, accompanied by others in the workshop, also illuminated other volumes for Paduan churches and the Carrara court. Attributed to the same group of illuminators are the following notable commissions: three volumes of an Antiphonal of the Collegiate Church of Santa Giustina in Monselice (Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare, MSS E 18, E 19, E 22) and two Psalters in the Estense Library of Modena (MSS lat. 1017 and 1020). One of the Antiphonals E 22 and the Estense Psalters are considered late works, following the Picture Bible. The other two Antiphonals E 18 and E 19 are probably of an earlier date, perhaps contemporary with the Picture Bible. The execution of the Choir Books is thought to extend from 1384 to 1415, commissioned by Domenico da Monselice, at the time when Stefano da Carrara was bishop. The late Gothic style of the artists, working in a softer manner and with a more sophisticated palette under the influence of Gentile da Fabriano active in Venice in 1410, is found in two copies of the Divine Comedy , both dated 1411 (Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II, MS XIII C.2, and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS it. 530). The concluding volume in the Monselice series (E 24) of the Common of the Saints belongs with these late works. Six panels, of which the whereabouts of only one are known (La Spezia, Museo Amedeo Lia), are also attributed to the group of artists.
17
Maestro della Bibbia Istoriata Padovana (follower?)
Saint Peter, in an initial ‘S’ from a Choir Book
Italy, Padua, c. 1410–1420
This large leaf with an historiated initial ‘S’ containing Saint Peter enthroned comes from an Antiphonal that is close to the illuminated manuscripts attributed to the late style of the Maestri della Bibbia Istoriata Padovana. It introduces the response for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29 with the words “Simone Petre antequam de navi” (Saint Peter before I called you). A sister leaf still in a private collection with similar dimensions, stave height, number of lines, and layout comes from the same parent manuscript (Fig. 2). A scene of the Nativity in an initial ‘H’ opens the antiphon for September 8, “Hodie nata est beata Virgo” (Today is born a Virgin). According to Gaudenz Freuler, this second leaf is by the Master of 1411. The collaboration of these two artists in one volume reveals artistic exchanges between Emilian and Paduan illuminators in the opening decades of the Quattrocento.
Physical description
leaf 515 × 368 mm initial 117 × 107 mm; 1line painted initial ‘Q’ pink on blue ground; 4-line stave, height 30 mm; verso incipit: “[prin]cipem te constitui et clavis …,” explicit: “et quod cumque soveris su[per]” (feast for the Chair of Saint Peter, Rome).
Developed from the neo-Gothic style of Giotto of the earlier Picture Bible that dates at the latest toward the end of the 1390s to the more decorative late Gothic stylistic trend of the Maestri della Bibbia Istoriata Padovana, Saint Peter sits frontally on a stone throne draped in a decorated green cloth. His luxurious orange-red garment is patterned with feather-like motifs in blue, green, and white. These features, and especially his facial type, are found in the late works of the Paduan artists, for example in the last volume of the Antiphonal made for the Collegiate Church of Santa Giustina in Monselice (Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS E 24) (Fig. 3) and in the two exemplars of the Divine Comedy dated 1411. Compare folio 96 of the Paris Dante with Saint Peter. Not only is the treatment of the drapery, the faces, and the decorative ground similar, so too is the border decoration with its orange, red, and blue acanthus simply outlined in white and on a gold ground with gold bezants heavily outlined in black (Fig. 4).
The artist of the sister leaf, the Master of 1411, is baptized after a striking frontispiece to the Matricola of the Society of Drapers of Bologna dated 1411 (Bologna, Museo Civico Medievale, MS 640) (Fig. 5). This Emilian artist, probably trained in the last decade of the 1390s drawing on the expressive figures of Niccolò di Giacomo, worked through the third decade of the fifteenth century. His lively narrative style, animated compositions, and more compact figures distinguish him from the softer late Gothic style of his collaborator responsible for Saint Peter. In addition to his Bolognese commissions, the illuminator has been potentially identified with those working in Padua, such as Jacopo da Padua.
We are grateful to Federica Toniolo and Gaudenz Freuler for their expertise.
3
Maestro della Bibbia Istoriata Padovana (circle of), Initial ‘E’, from Santa Giustina in Monselice Antiphonal (Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS E. 24, f. 2v)
Fig.
Fig. 1
Maestro della Bibbia Istoriata Padovana, Bezalel and Aholiab are selected to build the Tabernacle (London, British Library, Add. MS 15277, f. 15v)
Fig. 4
Maestro della Bibbia Istoriata Padovana (circle of), Initial ‘E’, Opening of the Paradise from Dante’s Divine Comedy (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS it. 530, f.96r)
Provenance
Private Collection, Switzerland.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: Huter 1974, 9–12; De Marchi in Lorenzoni et al. 2002, 103, no. 13; Toniolo in Bollati 2004, 424–427; Toniolo in Valenzano and Toniolo 2007, 130–131; Minazzato in Mariani Canova et al. 2014, cat. 65, 393–97.
2
Master of 1411, Initial ‘H’, Birth of the Virgin (Private Collection)
Fig. 5
Master of 1411, Frontispiece to the Matricola of the Society of Drapers of Bologna (Bologna, Museo Civico Medievale, MS 640)
Fig.
Cristoforo Cortese
Italy, Venice, active c. 1390–d. before 1445
Recorded as “miniator” in 1399 in the Statutes of the Scuola di Santa Caterina dei Sacchi in Venice, Cristoforo Cortese was already active in the late fourteenth century. In 1455, his son claimed payment for some illuminations painted by his deceased father, thus establishing a death date. Cortese spent his long career primarily in Venice, although he worked also in Padua and Bologna, and he maintained a monopoly over the illustration of Venetian manuscripts. The types of manuscripts he illustrated are unusually varied; from Mariegole (literally “Mother’s Rule,” or statutes and regulations for lay civic or religious organizations), to Choir Books, to humanist and devotional texts, and literary works, Cortese’s commissions include manuscripts for some of the most prestigious patrons and significant religious communities in the Veneto and EmiliaRomagna. Also attributed to him are several panel paintings. Signed works help endorse the validity of other attributions to the artist. These include a Burial of Saint Francis and a Virgin Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Ambrose from a Venetian Mariegola dated 1427 and 1428 (La Spezia, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, inv. 543). Dated works help us also understand the evolution of his style over the course of a lengthy career. His earliest works display a late Gothic “International Style” idiom, influenced by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, with whom he probably came in direct contact around 1401, along with Michelino da Besozzo and Gentile da Fabriano, both of whom worked in Venice, the former around 1410 and the latter between 1408 and 1414 during the first decade of Cortese’s career. In this early phase, his style is still highly decorative and lyrical. As his work developed in the 1430s and thereafter, it became more monumental, the figures more heavily outlined, and the compositions vigorous and more expressive. Federica Toniolo claims for Cortese the status of “the most important and prolific Venetian illuminator of the first half of the late fourteenth century.”
18
Cristoforo Cortese
The Burial of a Dominican Nun, in an initial ‘S’ from a Choir Book (?) Italy, Venice, 1401–1402
This previously unpublished cutting comes from Cristoforo Cortese’s first major commission, a Psalter or Choir Book made for the nuns of the Corpus Domini, a Venetian Dominican convent newly founded in 1395. The manuscript was sponsored by Beata Chiara Gambacorta of the parent house in Pisa, who is most likely portrayed kneeling at David’s feet in the large opening miniature of Christ Enthroned and David Playing the Psaltery (Fig. 1). Gaudenz Freuler supposes that other members of the community— the rich patrons Marco Paruta and Facio Tommasini, their novice daughters Elisabetta and Andriola, the foundress and the first prioress Lucia Tiepolo, and her secular companions—be identified with those that appear in another
Physical description
93 × 98 mm; cut to shape, verso, 4-line stave, height 39 mm; text mostly unreadable; large red initial “Dum” with guide word “Summe,” small pencil number ‘9’ in lower right corner.
manuscript illumination probably from the same manuscript, displaying the exceptional personalization that characterized this commission (Fig. 2). Surely the burial of the Dominican nun in the present illumination represents a specific member of the order, but without further evidence we cannot know her identity. In the aperture of the initial ‘S’ a white-cloaked monk places a Dominican nun in a coffin. The sharp black outline of the faces and drapery, the goldleaf background, and the ornamental details of the initial place the illumination securely in the group. Compare, for example, the whimsical dragon-like ornament of the initial with the initial in Philadelphia of the Vestiture of a Princess-Saint, perhaps Saint Agnes (The Free Library, Lewis E.M. 25:27) (Fig. 3).
We know a great deal about the specifics of the commission. The Florentine preaching friar Giovanni Dominici ordered that books for worship and the liturgy be created for the convent, and work was begun on June 18, 1400 and nearly finished by December 1401, according to a series of letters between Dominici and the nuns. He counsels the nuns to take their liturgical manuscripts to the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele of Murano for the completion of their decorative work, paying attention to the Graduals there with large miniature paintings that could serve as models. Indeed, the nuns appear to have followed his instructions for the opening miniature follows the opening page of a Psalter illuminated by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci in 1368 in Florence and subsequently shipped to Venice to San Michele in Murano (Venice, Museo Correr, MS Cl. V. 129) (Fig. 4). Cortese remained in contact with the monasteries of Murano, completing for the community of San Mattia on Murano a Register of Processions in 1403 (Venice, Library of the Patriarchal Seminary, Busta 956, 17) and even in 1420 working for the Camoldolese monks on Murano, influenced by the Master of the Murano Gradual.
Nineteen related cuttings come from a multivolume Antiphonal, many of them portraying Dominican nuns (listed in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, 370). Since documents specify several books for worship, we cannot be sure that all the extant cuttings, as well as the Christ-David fragment come from the same set of manuscripts. Toniolo rightly questions whether the grand Christ-David illumination could come from an Antiphonal instead of a Psalter and cautions that a further examination of the reverse of all the miniatures, the texts and the heights of the staves, is needed to resolve their origins. The discovery of the present cutting brings us one step closer to resolving the circumstances surrounding the pivotal work in the early career of Cristoforo Cortese.
We are grateful to Federica Toniolo for her expertise.
Fig. 1
Cristoforo Cortese, Initial ‘B’, Christ Enthroned, David Playing the Harp, and a Kneeling Dominican Nun (Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke)
Initial ‘D’, Christ in Prayer before a Group of the
Provenance
London, Sotheby’s, 8 December 2015, lot 11; Private collection, Switzerland.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: Freuler 1997, 551; Palladino 2003, 71; Freuler 2004, 159–160; Toniolo in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, 367–79.
Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Initial ‘B’, Christ Blessing and King David, Psalter from the Monastery of Saint Michele in Murano (Venice, Biblioteca del Museo Correr, Cl. V, 129, f. 1)
Cristoforo Cortese, Initial ‘D’, St. Agnes of Rome delivered to the brothel and receiving the white robe (Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts, E.M. 25:27)
Fig. 2
Cristoforo Cortese,
Faithful (Private Collection)
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Luçon Master
France, Paris, active 1390-1417
Active in Paris from the 1390s to around 1417, the Luçon Master was first named by Millard Meiss in 1968 after illuminations in a Pontifical-Missal commissioned by the bishop of Luçon, Etienne Loypeau, for presentation to his protector, Jean the Duke of Berry, in his chapel in the Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges between 1404 and 1407 (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 8886). Charles Sterling suggested that a more appropriate name would be the Master of Etienne Loypeau. He was active by 1401, when Colin le Besc, who supplied manuscripts to the dukes of Berry and Orleans, dated a Book of Hours containing illuminations by him and the Master of the Cité des Dames (Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya y central, MS 1850). He must have headed a busy workshop for Meiss attributed thirty-seven manuscripts to him, and in subsequent decades others have been accepted as belonging to his oeuvre. In addition to the Pontifical-Missal, the Luçon Master illuminated other works for the Duke of Berry, including a devotional text L’ aiguillon d’amour divin for the Duke’s daughter Marie (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 926) and a Terence des ducs for the Dauphin Louis duc de Guyennes (Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 664). Among the attributed manuscripts, well over half are Books of Hours, many of them richly illuminated. The artist’s elegant style includes graceful figures softly modeled and posed with a Gothic sway, finely tessellated backgrounds, and a rich palette with jewel-like colors, bright orange, vibrant red, light pink, deep blue, and solid black. Spatial settings held little interest for him. François Avril considered him “one of the three most visible protagonists at the beginning of the fifteenth century” and in his praise for him, Millard Meiss ranked him second only to the Limbourg Brothers among the illuminators of the “golden age” of Parisian manuscript production.
19
Luçon Master (or Circle of)
Labors of the Months and Zodiac Signs, seven cuttings from a Book of Hours
France, Paris or Bourges, c. 1410
These small miniatures illustrate the Labors of the Months and the Signs of the Zodiac for five of the twelve months from a medieval calendar, most likely a Book of Hours. The months and their subjects are: January, a man feasting and Aquarius emptying his water pot; February, a man warming his feet by a hearth; August, Virgo the young woman; October, a man sowing seed and Scorpio the scorpion; November, a man knocking acorns from a tree to feed his pigs. The narrow gold framing around the top, bottom, and outer side of each cutting demonstrates that they were paired within a single gold-edged rectangle, the Labor on the left, the Zodiac on the right. By examining the reverses of the fragments, it is apparent that the man feasting used to be joined to Aquarius and the man sowing to Scorpio; the other cuttings come from three different months.
Physical description
each c. 35 × 35 mm; miniatures from the rectos, the versos with border decoration of vine leaves in gold, blue, and red on thick painted stems (small paint losses to November); mounted on four cards in a blue cloth-covered box, gilt lettering-piece.
The finely painted calendar quatrefoils relate to two manuscripts associated with the Duke of Berry: the first, the Très Belles Heures described as by Jacquemart de Hesdin in the Duke’s inventory in 1403 (Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, MSS 1160-61) and the second the Belles Heures of Jean Duke of Berry created in its entirety by the Limbourg Brothers between 1405 and 1408 or 1409 (Fig. 1). There are certain shared compositions (the Labors of February and October, Virgo, Scorpio) as well as the quatrefoil shape that frames the images. However, their style comes closer to that of the Luçon Master, known to have collaborated with Jacquemart de Hesdin in the first decade of the fifteenth century. The protruding faces with straight nose, small lips and eyes are very characteristic of the Master of Luçon, as are the swollen draperies and the palette of light hues. Typically, he is not interested in creating realistic spatial settings; the figures occupy the minimal green grounds suggesting landscape and are set either on decorated orange and gold checkerboard-like patterns or plain blue skies. For comparable male figures, their poses and costumes, compare especially the Adoration of the Magi from a Book of Hours (London, British Library, Ms Yates Thompson 37), which also has an orange and gold decorative background, and King David with his Psalter from a Psalter-Hours (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 1082), similarly set in a framed quatrefoil (Fig. 2).
The horizontal layout of the calendar miniatures, attached one to the other with borders of blue and red, closely resembles that of November in the so-called Hours of Joseph Bonaparte from the Boucicaut Workshop (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 10538, f. 12r) (Fig. 3), with which the iconography is also similar excepting January. One of the innovative motifs of our small images are the rays of sun that accompany the Signs of the Zodiac. Similar rays occur in the border of Widener 4 (Philadelphia, Free Library, f. 1) by the Luçon Master’s workshop, where they allude to the emblem of King Charles VI (Fig. 4), although they could refer to the sun crossing the sky as in the Très Riches Heures. Just what manuscript these miniatures once adorned is unknown; they are probably unrelated to the three single sheets with which they shared a page in the Album (Fig. 5). One manuscript by the Luçon Master that is long missing its first half, including the calendar, with comparable style and approximate date, is the Book of Hours at Harvard University (Houghton Library, MS Richardson 45) (Fig. 6).
We are grateful to Inès Villela-Petit and Elliot Adam for their expertise.
Fig. 1
The Limbourg Brothers, December: Slaughtering a Boar, Capricorn, from The Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry (New York, The Metropolitan Museum, 54.1.1a, b, f. 13r)
2
Luçon Master, King David with his Psalter, from a Psalter-Hours (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat.1082, f.7v)
3
Workshop, Calendar page for November, from the Hours of Joseph
(Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 10538, f. 12r)
Fig.
Fig.
Boucicaut
Bonaparte
Provenance
Peter Birmann (1758–1844), Basel painter and art dealer of medieval miniatures in the wake of the French Revolution and first owner of Jean Fouquet’s miniatures of the Hours of Etienne Chevalier; Daniel Burkhardt-Wildt (1752–1819), Basel silk manufacturer and co-founder of the Basler Kunstlergeschellschaft, these three miniatures assembled in an album, the “BurkhardtWildt Album,” sold at Sotheby’s London,April 25, 1983, lot 100; Quaritch for (?) Neil F. Phillips, Q.C. (1924–1997), New York, Montreal, and Virginia, his no. 1065; resold Sotheby’s London, December 2, 1997, lot 62; and again Christie’s London, November 20, 2013, lot 38; Sandra Hindman, The Art Institute of Chicago, on deposit, 2018–2024; exhibited 27 January to 28 May 2018.
Literature
Published: de Hamel and Westerby 2018, pp. 7485, no. 6; Related Literature: Meiss 1974, vol. I, 358–59, vol. II, 393–97; Sterling 1987–90, vol. 1, 22, 325, 327, 425, 434, 501; Avril 2004; TaburetDelahaye 2004, no. 171; Wieck in Hamburger et al. 2006, no. 101, 114–15.
Fig. 4
Luçon Master Workshop (?), Calendar page for January, from a Book of Hours (Philadelphia, Free Library, Widener 4, f. 1r)
Fig. 5
Album of manuscript cuttings assembled by Peter Birmann (1758–1844) for Daniel Burckhardt-Wildt (1752–1819)
Fig. 6
Luçon Master, Deposition, from a Book of Hours (Cambridge, Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Richardson 45, f. 136r)
Jean Haincelin
France, Paris, active 1435–1460
Formerly known as the Dunois Master after a Book of Hours painted for Jean Comte de Dunois in London (British Library, Yates Thompson MS 3) and also as the Chief Associate of the Bedford Master based on his familiarity with designs used by the latter artist, the artist can now—with reasonable certainty—be identified as Jean Haincelin. Jean Haincelin is most likely the son of Haincelin de Haguenau, court illuminator of Louis duc de Guyenne, documented in Paris from 1403 to 1424, whom most scholars recognize as the Bedford Master. He is known as a painter and illuminator in Paris between 1438 and 1449. In 1438, he is the only painter listed among the wealthiest taxpayers of the capital, asked to help fund the war of Charles VII. In 1445 and 1449, he is paid by the poet and bibliophile Charles, Duke of Orléans, for several undescribed works. The artistic relationship that unites the Bedford Master to the Dunois Master is what has led art historians to suggest their respective identification as Haincelin de Haguenau and Jean Haincelin. This hypothesis has been further confirmed by the fact that Jean Haincelin was paid around 1444 for the book box and the leather pouch for the Hours of Admiral Prigent de Coetivy, illuminated by the Dunois Master c. 1442–1444 (Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, W. MS 89): “Item pour une boeste et une boursse de cuir pour les heures.” Notable among his works are: The Hours of Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nal. 3226), the Hours of Simon de Varie (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS 7; The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS 74 G 37), and a panel painting the Trinité aux chanoines (Paris, Musée de Cluny, inv. Mu 1261) (Fig. 1). His principal patrons were from the Jouvenel des Ursins family, and his style is characterized by soft modeling and a pale palette with a preference for semi-grisaille or white tones.
20
Jean Haincelin
Annunciation to Joachim and Anne Teaching Mary to Read, leaf from a Book of Hours
France, Paris, c. 1445–1450
This is one of twelve known leaves that come from two related Books of Hours. It illustrates the Annunciation to Joachim in the main miniature. An angel visits Joachim (his name is written in goldleaf on the banderole above his head), who was a shepherd, in a composition that recalls the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and tells him that he and his wife, Anne, will bear a child. The angel’s words “Habebis filiam et nomen eius erit Maria” (You will have a daughter, and her name will be Maria) appear in the banderole held by the angel. In the margin, Anne, seated, teaches her child, the Virgin Mary to read, as she holds and points to a book on her lap. The miniature and bas-de-page illustrate the Suffrage to Saint Anne, which begins “Felix anna quedam” (Happy Anne who …) introduced by a two-line initial and written in a bâtarde script. The subject matter is extraordinary and speaks in favor of
Physical description
leaf 123 × 88 mm, miniature 70 × 45 mm; written space (front) 17 × 45 mm; written space (back) 65 × 50 mm; rear 12 lines, rubric in red, two bracket borders, 2-line initial blue with white tracery on burnished gold ground, line ending; incipit: “beate francisce,…” explicit: [red rubric] “de sancta anna. an.”
a special commission. Although other Books of Hours include an illustration for the Suffrage of Anne, none to our knowledge include the very rare scene of the Annunciation to Joachim. Text on the reverse is the conclusion to the Suffrage to Saint Francis, a miniature not yet recovered (Fig. 2).
Sixteen leaves, including the present one, were in the sale of Frédéric Spitzer’s collection in Paris in 1893. Based on differences in script, initials, and language, Nicole Reynaud recognized in 1999, that the Spitzer leaves came from two different Books of Hours. The group from which ours comes has 2-line decorated initials, rubrics in Latin, and a bâtarde script. Other miniatures in the group include Saint Giles and Saint Julian in the Victoria and Albert Museum (E4582-1910 and 4583-1910) (Figs. 3a and 3b), Saint Germain l’Auxerrois (Judy Webb Collection; gift to University of California, Berkeley) (Fig. 4), Saint Thomas Aquinas (Paris, Drouot, November 14, 1975), and the Holy Wound (Paris, Marmottan-Monet, inv. M6198). An example of the group from the second Book of Hours also painted by Jean Haincelin but for an unidentified patron is Saint Stephen (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E 4580-1910) (Fig. 5). Seven are still missing from the Spitzer sale (Adoration of the Holy Crown, Crucifixion, Saints Donatian and Rogatian, Saint Maudez, Baptism of Christ, Descent from the Cross/Pieta, and Saint Christopher). The fact that few of the standard cycles from a Book of Hours (such as the Hours of the Virgin) have turned up leaves some hope for the finding of the parent manuscript.
Fig. 1
Jean Haincelin, Trinité aux chanoines (Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Âge, Dépôt de l'Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, inv. Mu 1261)
Illuminated in the border with the blanche ursine, the emblem of the Jouvenel des Ursins family, the Saint Germain leaf points to a member of that family as the patron. Elliot Adam has argued that the manuscript from which these leaves come was made for Jacques Jouvenel (1410–1457) in the fashion of his elder brother’s Guillaume Book of Hours now in Paris (Fig. 6). Jacques was a great prelate, at the time archbishop of Reims, peer of France, and archdeacon of Notre-Dame de Paris which granted rights to the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois church. The style of these leaves and other of the works attributed to our artist is uniquely appealing: the figures are lively, their faces full of expression, and the whitish draperies beautifully modeled, especially in the figures of Anne and the Virgin. Complementing well the figural scenes are the elegant borders in which swirling acanthus blooms with delicate forget-me-nots, poppies, and strawberries in carefully modulated tones of blue and red. This artist’s work represents the very best of Parisian “golden age” painting as it evolved around mid-century.
We are grateful to Elliot Adam for his expertise.
Fig. 6
Jean Haincelin, Annunciation to the Shepherds, from the Hours of Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, NAL 3226, f. 18r)
Fig. 2
Jean Haincelin, verso of cat. 20
Provenance
Frédéric Spitzer (1815–1890), Vienna and Paris, his sale Paris, April 14–June 16, 1893, lot 3276; Private European Collection.
Literature
Unpublished; Related Literature: Avril and Reynaud 1993; Marrow 1995; Reynaud 1999; Reynolds in Croenen and Ainsworth 2006; VillelaPetit 2008; Gameson in Bovey et al. 2020; Adam 2023, 365–72.
Fig. 3a
Jean Haincelin, Saint Julian (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.4583-1910)
Fig. 3b
Jean Haincelin, Saint Giles standing with Charlemagne (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.4582-1910)
Fig. 4
Jean Haincelin, Saint Germain l’Auxerrois (Berkeley, CA, Judy Webb Collection, gift to University of California)
Fig. 5
Jean Haincelin, Saint Stephen (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.4580-1910)
Master(s) of San Pier Maggiore
Italy, Florence, c. 1346–1362
Recent research by Gaudenz Freuler has brought into focus an important, previously undefined group of Florentine illuminators working together around the middle of the fourteenth century on a single project after the pre-Giottesque illuminators in Florence such as Maestro Daddesco. They were responsible for a set of three Antiphonals that consist today of some forty-four leaves and cuttings and a fragmentary volume (65 folios) almost certainly made for the city’s most prestigious religious house for women, the Benedictine convent of San Pier Maggiore founded under the Abbess Ghisla Firidoli in 1067 and demolished in 1783. The frequency with which illustrations of Saint Peter appear in the Florentine manuscript, even when unwarranted by the text, combined with the devotion to Saint Benedict as befits a Benedictine commission, supports this assumption that the manuscript was made for this important nunnery, from which a slightly later manuscript Ordo also survives (Fig. 1). We have thus newly christened the group of artists after their eponymous work, the Master(s) of San Pier Maggiore. The fragments come from the Common of the Saints, the Proper of Time, and the Proper of the Saints, which were dispersed at the latest by the 1930s. Freuler has singled out four artists working on the project over almost two decades. Hand A began the project in about 1346 with the assistance of Hand B, and his style harks back to Maestro Daddesco and Pacino da Buonaguida, while revealing some Pisan and Sienese sources. Following a short interval, Hand C intervened, and in c. 1360 Hand D concluded the series with miniatures that anticipate the more sophisticated work of the latter half of the fourteenth century, especially that of Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci.
21
Master A of San Pier Maggiore
Saints Peter, Andrew, and Paul, in an initial ‘I’ from a Choir Book
Italy, Florence, c. 1346
The large initial ‘I’ prefacing “[I]uravit dominus et non penitebit” (The Lord has sworn and will not repent) introduces the antiphon at second vespers for the Feast of the Common of the Apostles celebrated on Pentecost Sunday. Saints Peter, Andrew, and Paul appear in quatrefoil roundels in descending order in a columnar frieze, depicted with their attributes, which are respectively a key, a cross, and a sword. When this large folio first came to light in 1996, before Freuler conducted his research, Milvia Bollati attributed it to the Workshop of Pacino di Buonaguida. Now that the profiles of the group of illuminators known as the Master(s) of San Pier Maggiore are well defined, this earlier attribution makes some sense, because the historiated initial is by Hand A, who initiated the project of the Antiphonals of San Pier Maggiore. Master (or
Physical description
c. 648/653 × 440/445 mm; 4-line stave, height 52 mm, verso ‘LIX’ foliation upper center margin, incipit: “Nimis honorati fuit amici tu” (response for the Common of the Apostles), explicit: “ad vesperas.ant.” 2 penwork initials, red with blue scrollwork, blue with red scrollwork.
Hand) A was responsible for the first section of the Common of the Saints and his sources included Pacino, the Maestro Daddeso, as well as Sienese and Pisan models.
Freuler has defined the style of Master A of Pier Maggiore as the most complex of the four associated illuminators. In 1996, Bollati noted his Pacinesque models in a Bible (Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, ms. Triv. 2139) dated between 1335 and 1340, which offers especially close analogies with the marginal decoration. The rectilinear border decoration, which includes longbeaked birds among the drolleries, derives from Sienese illumination and was adopted by other Florentine workshops. The figures, especially Saint Andrew, can be compared to a magnificent folio of an Arbor Vitae in the same Bible (f. 485) (Fig. 2). The ornamental devices used in fresco paintings in Siena such as the murals by Francesco Trani and Simone Martini served as models for the present initial with its quatrefoil medallions housing the three saints. In this respect it most closely resembles two other folios by Master A from the Antiphonal, both initials ‘I’: the first showing Saint John Departing for the Desert with a cosmati-patterned roundel within a yellow and orange framed frieze (Milan, Private Collection) (Fig. 3), and the second showing a Martyr Saint in a columnar frieze with a cosmati-patterned roundel surrounding the martyr saint (Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, inv. 2160) (Fig. 4). The Cini leaf shares other decorative features with the present initial I such as the fourlobed ornament in the margin and the sculpturesque surround for the saint.
Fig. 2
Master A of Pier Maggiore, Arbor Vitae (Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana, MS. Triv. 2139)
Fig. 1
Masters of San Pier Maggiore, Ordo ad consecrandum virginum (Amherst, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, MS 1060, f. 1r)
Master A’s assimilation of the post-Giottoesque idiom favoring concrete space in the solid world is seen in his beautiful Annunciation housed in an initial ‘M’ that depicts a fully developed spatial setting for the room in which the Virgin sits reading, interrupted by the Angel Gabriel who approaches from outside the initial (Fig. 5), like young Saint John in the initial ‘I’. The assimilation of Sienese and Pisan decorative elements along with the response to northern Italian monumental painting, first evident in the contributions by Master A, and increasingly displayed as the project for the three-volume Antiphonal progressed, provide the artistic foundation for the development of the illuminators of the Scuola of Sainta Maria degli Angeli in Florence to such an extent that Freuler even suspects that Hand D may one day be identified as the young Gherarducci. The nuns of San Pier Maggiore, who commissioned the Antiphonals, now emerge as key players in the history of Florentine manuscript illumination.
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.
Fig. 3
Master A of Pier Maggiore, Leaf with initial ‘I’, Saint John Departing for the Desert (Milan, Private Collection)
Fig.5
Master A of Pier Maggiore, Leaf with initial ‘M’, Annunciation (Milan, Private Collection)
Provenance
Paolo Brisigotti, London, Les Enluminures, Paris, and Longari, Milan (BEL), 1993–1996, exhibited Paris and London, 1996–1997; Private Collection, USA, 1996–2024.
Literature
Published: Bollati 1996 no. 4; Freuler in Tartuferi 2008, 77, 214–23; Freuler 2013, vol. II, 548; Freuler in Medica et al. 2016, no. 33a, 168–71.
Fig. 4
Master A of Pier Maggiore, Leaf with initial ‘I’, Martyr Saint (Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, inv. 2160)
Anonymous English Illuminator
Saint John the Baptist, leaf from the Knyvett Hours (Prayerbook)
England (probably East Anglia), c. 1375–1400
This leaf with a miniature of Saint John the Baptist and the text of the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel (Fig. 1) comes from a celebrated manuscript known as the Knyvett Hours (although recently demonstrated to be a Prayerbook not an actual Horae). It once contained thirty-two miniatures, described (albeit unreliably) in 1931 by Bernard Quaritch when the book was still extant. Many of the miniatures, including the present one, bear the arms and the initials of the wealthy Knyvett family, and the manuscript was most likely made, as Peter Kidd has suggested, for John Knyvett of Winwick (c. 1322–1381), who had close royal ties, serving the English Crown as Lord Chief Justice, Lord Chancellor, and as one of the executors of the will of King Edward III. Evidently broken up between 1941 and 1948, many but not all the thirty-two illuminated leaves, as well as some of the text pages, have since entered public and private collections, including The Morgan Library and Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum (Fig. 2), the Walters Art Museum, and the collection of Robert McCarthy. The style is full of charm and highly idiosyncratic; exact comparisons have not yet been found in existing fourteenth-century English illumination.
Occupying a half page on the verso (once f. 20v), Saint John the Baptist is portrayed in a bright red robe, seated on a grassy hill and gesturing to the Agnus Dei, all before a burgundy-red sky decorated with gold scrollwork and burnished gold clouds at its uppermost edge. This compartment is above another formed of pink, blue, red and burnished gold tiles (the colored ones decorated with white penwork), all within a wide border of gold bars enclosing colored panels divided by a zig-zagging blue and white bar, with coats-of-arms at each corner (clockwise from upper lefthand corner: gules; armed gules and in chief or with four lozenges sable; sable a lion passant gardant sable; and argent a cross gules; with traces of guide-letters probably ‘g’ and ‘v’ next to the last two arms), the colored panels each filled with a letter in gold intended to spell out the name “Knyvett” (sometimes in haphazard order: outer vertical border “kneyft,” inner vertical border: “kneyft,” last letter of previous plus lower border: “k+neyft,” with a remaining “eyf+t” filling the upper border and uppermost compartment of outer vertical border), sprigs of colored foliage and gold bezants emerging from outer edges of frame.
Physical description
200 × 133 mm; tempera and gold leaf on parchment; recto: thirteen lines of text (suffrage to Saint Michael the Archangel, opening with two-line red rubric and, “Sancte Michael archangele veni in adiutorio …”) encased on three sides by a vertical text border in blue and gold, with a large initial ‘D’ in blue on colored and gold grounds mounted at its midpoint, text border terminating in single-line foliage at its head and foot, a coat-of-arms hanging from a metal hook next to the text in the outer border (combining the second and third of those on verso, following our order above), later sketches of an insect and another item (both probably later) above and below this coat-of-arms, prick marks for lines visible at vertical edge of leaf, modern pencil folio number ‘20’ in upper outer corner of recto.
The present leaf is previously known only to scholarship from its black-andwhite illustration in the Quaritch catalogue of 1931. The decoration is unusual to the point of eccentric, notably with the alluring kaleidoscopic backgrounds to the miniatures, which have parallels in the bold tessellated backgrounds in two manuscripts of Guillaume de Deguilleville by a single illuminator (New York, New York Public Library, Spencer MS. 19, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud, Misc. 740), and an alchemical manuscript compiled for Richard II in 1391 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 581), but as yet no convincing comparison has been made between the miniatures from the Knyvett Hours and any other manuscript. The parent manuscript contained several rare artistic features, such as the vast cycle of thirty-two full-page miniatures, with six consecutive ones devoted to Mary Magdalene, as well as rare textual features, with the inclusion of the Penitential Psalms in rhyming French as well as Latin. It was clearly a highly individual commission, for which the wishes of the original patron may have guided the book’s producers. It is likely that the original owner, named John, chose this particular miniature of his name saint to include his name embedded in the decoration.
Leaves from the Knyvett Hours appear infrequently on the market; the last to do so are those depicting Saints Nicholas and perhaps Barnabas (Sotheby’s, London, May 23, 2017, lots 18 and 19) (Fig. 3); the leaf with Saint Christopher (sold in Sotheby’s, London, July 2, 2013, lot 29, and now in the McCarthy collection); the leaf with Saint George (Sotheby’s, London, July 7, 2007, lot 107), and a leaf with Saint Helena (London, Sam Fogg) (Fig. 4). A study by Peter Kidd includes a full description of four leaves in the McCarthy collection as well as a reconstruction of the book and a detailed discussion of its patronage (Kidd 2019, 91–98).
Fig. 2
Saint Andrew, leaf from the Knyvett Hours (Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, M.74.100.2b.)
Fig. 1
Verso of cat. no. 22, leaf from the Knyvett Hours
Provenance
Likely John Knyvett of Winwick (c. 1322–1381); to Marset Aloul, likely daughter of John Alouf, member of Henry VI’s court; Thomas Boykott, with his bookplate, dated 1761, his sale Sotheby's, June 3–5, 1918, lot 259; Quaritch 1991 and 1993, cat 458, no. 3; H.P. Kraus, 1941; Rudolf Wien; Private Swedish Collection.
Literature
Published: Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge 1918, no. 259; Quaritch 1931, no. 56; Quaritch 1933, no. 3; Related Literature: Pächt and Alexander 1966–73, III, 925 a-b; Kidd 2019, vol. II, 91–98; Albritton 2020.
3
Saint Nicholas, leaf from the Knyvett Hours (London, Sotheby’s, 23 May 2017, lot 18)
4
Saint Helena, leaf from the Knyvett Hours (London, Sam Fogg)
Fig.
Fig.
Epilogue
My “because(s)”
As my colleague, Gaia Grizzi suggests in her interesting introduction, I am going to play Sophie Calle’s game. Close my eyes and choose … There I did it. I have two choices.
For the first one, I have written with my white pencil on black paper: “Because he makes me smile” and the cutting is Saint Michael the Archangel (no. 10).
What I like about this manuscript cutting is the angel’s rosy pink cheeks, slight smile, curly blond hair, and the cute little devil, almost monkey-like, standing next to one of the scales. The gold leaf gives Michael just the right aura, somewhere between earthly and heavenly.
For the second one, I have written with my white pencil on black paper: “Because it makes me want to stand with them in the deserted landscape in total silence and meditate” and the cutting is by Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo of a Funeral Service (no. 8).
The standing mourners convey silent contemplation, and the hills backed up against them create a kind of cocoon-like space which the relatively muted palette reinforces.
Our choices are highly personal. Sophie Calle’s series underscores that idea. My “because(s)” is for me personally, for me to live with. If asked to pick the best work for acquisition for a museum collection or the most commercial work for purchase for dealer stock or the work that I think will have the most value in twenty years, my answers would undoubtedly be different.
Join us with your own “because(s).”
Sandra Hindman
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Aknowledgments
We are grateful to Sophie Calle and Quentin Métayer from Perrotin gallery for their collaboration.
We gratefully acknowledge for their expertise Elliot Adam, Milvia Bollati, Gaudenz Freuler, Jeffrey Hamburger, Mario Marubbi, Federica Toniolo, Inès Villela-Petit, and Laura Zabeo.
Additionally, we would like to thank Peter Bovenmyer, Christopher de Hamel, Laura Jereski, Pierre Joppen, Marco Longari, as well as the entire team of Les Enluminures.
Sandra Hindman is a leading expert on European Medieval and Renaissance manuscript illumination and jewelry. Professor Emerita of Art History at Northwestern University and Chairwoman of Les Enluminures worldwide, Dr. Hindman is author, co-author, and editor of more than a dozen scholarly books, as well as numerous articles on illuminated manuscripts and on medieval rings. These publications include The Robert Lehman Collection. IV. Illuminations (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997); Books of Hours Reconsidered (2013); and Take this Ring Medieval and Renaissance Rings from the Griffin Collection (2015). In 2018, the Art Institute of Chicago paid tribute to her by organizing an exhibition in her honor, entitled “The Medieval World at Our Fingertips: Manuscript Illuminations from the Collection of Sandra Hindman.”
Gaia Grizzi studied Art History at Parma University in Italy and the École du Louvre in Paris. She is currently completing a PhD at the École nationale des Chartes, focusing on the intersection of scholarship and the manuscript book trade during the interwar period. Since 2008, she has worked with Les Enluminures.
