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Annunciation, historiated initial R on a cutting from a Gradual, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Umbria, c.1275]
Details
Anonymous Umbrian illuminator
Annunciation, historiated initial R on a cutting from a Gradual, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Umbria, c.1275]
A rich and creative example of duecento Umbrian illumination.
300 x 125mm. The initial opening the Introit to mass for the Feast of the Annunciation, ‘Rorate celi de super et nubes pluant […]’ (Drop down dew, you heavens, from above), partial text and staves, small guide letter `R’ in the margin (slight creasing across lower part of the Virgin’s robes). Laid down and framed.
The elaborate structure of the letter form, with extensions housing the figure of Gabriel above and below, an ecclesiastic figure, and the complex arrangement of the canopy and throne behind the Virgin in the infill are characteristic features of Umbrian illumination of this period. This complexity of composition and the treatment of hair, delineated with thin lines, and modelling of facial features have general parallels with illuminators close to the Master of Farneto and the Master of St Francis whose fresco cycles are on walls of Lower church in Assisi (see, for example, Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in an initial M, private collection, Gaudenz Freuler, pp.602-3) or Master of the Assisi Choirbooks, a follower of Cimabue.
Annunciation, historiated initial R on a cutting from a Gradual, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Umbria, c.1275]
A rich and creative example of duecento Umbrian illumination.
300 x 125mm. The initial opening the Introit to mass for the Feast of the Annunciation, ‘Rorate celi de super et nubes pluant […]’ (Drop down dew, you heavens, from above), partial text and staves, small guide letter `R’ in the margin (slight creasing across lower part of the Virgin’s robes). Laid down and framed.
The elaborate structure of the letter form, with extensions housing the figure of Gabriel above and below, an ecclesiastic figure, and the complex arrangement of the canopy and throne behind the Virgin in the infill are characteristic features of Umbrian illumination of this period. This complexity of composition and the treatment of hair, delineated with thin lines, and modelling of facial features have general parallels with illuminators close to the Master of Farneto and the Master of St Francis whose fresco cycles are on walls of Lower church in Assisi (see, for example, Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in an initial M, private collection, Gaudenz Freuler, pp.602-3) or Master of the Assisi Choirbooks, a follower of Cimabue.
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Mark Wiltshire
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