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Details
CHRIST IN MAJESTY, with the symbols of the Evangelists, in an inital D cut from a large-format choirbook, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Florence, ?S.Maria degli Angeli, c.1380s]
200 x 170mm (cutting); 117 x 140mm (initial). Christ garbed in blue and pink, seated on a white bench, holding a book and gesturing, flanked by a haloed man, an ox, a lion and an eagle; the initial staves of pale pink modelled in slightly darker pink and white, with leafy overlays in orange, blue, green and ochre; the square ground of burnished gold decorated with small circular and floral punches; remains of three four-line musical staves in red ink with square neumes and text in a large round Italian liturgical gothic script in black ink. Framed.
The form, palette and foliage of this extremely fine Tuscan initial are consistent with its production in Florence at the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli. The quality is sufficiently high to support an attribution to Don Silvstro dei Gherarducci, and it is closely comparable with his work in Corale 9, the first volume of the Antiphonals made for use in S. Maria degli Angeli itself and copied in 1385: M. Levi D'Ancona, 'L'Interdetto, gli Albizzi e la miniatura fiorentina', La miniatura italiana in et romanica e gotica (Florence, 1979), pp.461-488, fig. 10.
[Florence, ?S.Maria degli Angeli, c.1380s]
200 x 170mm (cutting); 117 x 140mm (initial). Christ garbed in blue and pink, seated on a white bench, holding a book and gesturing, flanked by a haloed man, an ox, a lion and an eagle; the initial staves of pale pink modelled in slightly darker pink and white, with leafy overlays in orange, blue, green and ochre; the square ground of burnished gold decorated with small circular and floral punches; remains of three four-line musical staves in red ink with square neumes and text in a large round Italian liturgical gothic script in black ink. Framed.
The form, palette and foliage of this extremely fine Tuscan initial are consistent with its production in Florence at the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli. The quality is sufficiently high to support an attribution to Don Silvstro dei Gherarducci, and it is closely comparable with his work in Corale 9, the first volume of the Antiphonals made for use in S. Maria degli Angeli itself and copied in 1385: M. Levi D'Ancona, 'L'Interdetto, gli Albizzi e la miniatura fiorentina', La miniatura italiana in et romanica e gotica (Florence, 1979), pp.461-488, fig. 10.