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A Service and the Sacrificial Lamb, historiated initial 'I' cut from an illuminated Antiphonal on vellum [Italy, Pisa, c.1350]
Details
Master of the Choirbooks of Santa Maria del Carmine
A Service and the Sacrificial Lamb, historiated initial 'I' cut from an illuminated Antiphonal on vellum [Italy, Pisa, c.1350]
A splendid example of Pisan illumination of the mid-14th century: two intriguing miniatures in one initial depicting a priest celebrating Mass and Moses sacrificing a lamb.
190 x 60mm. The historiated initial 'I' with a priest celebrating Mass in the top half and Moses with a sacrificial lamb below, likely introducing the responsory to the first nocturn for Corpus Christi: 'Immolabit haedum multitudo [...]', from an Antiphonal, reverse with three lines of text and music on a four-line red stave (rubbed, some creasing, losses to the gold and pigment). Mounted and framed.
Provenance:
(1) Another initial from the same choirbook, a historiated initial 'E' with the Temptation of Christ and a scene from Confession was sold at Koller, 18 September 2015, lot 124. Gaudenz Freuler links both of these initials to the choirbooks produced for the Carmelite house of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.
(2) Acquired from Les Enluminures in 2017.
Illumination:
The initial is the work of a highly expressive Pisan illuminator influenced by the work of Buonamico Buffalmacco, Francesco Traini, and the Gothic-infused art of Simone Martini. The artist emerges from the stylistic tradition of Pisan illuminators of the first half of the Trecento, namely the illuminators working with the Master of the Breviario Strozzi 11 in the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence. Freuler links the present cutting and its sister (sold at Koller in 2015) to the same Pisan workshop responsible for the decoration of mss. 570, 580 and 618 from the Carmelite church of Santa Maria del Carmine, now at the Museo di San Marco. These choirbooks, produced under the patronage of the lay confraternities active in the Carmelite church, are datable to c.1334-1348 (on which see L. Alidori Battaglia, 'Tra Pisa e Firenze: miniatori pisani nel XIV secolo', Codex Studies, 5, 2021, pp.3-33). Alidori Battaglia notes how the Koller leaf, along with an initial 'I' in Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis EM 48:6, and two other leaves at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Acc. N. 1488 and Acc. N. 4148, are the work of the primary illuminator of the Graduals of Santa Maria del Carmine, and show the growing Florentine influence of the Maestro Daddesco and the Master of the Dominican Effigies. The Philadelphia cutting is particularly close to ours: Moses as High Priest is depicted in profile placing a lamb over a roaring fire, a rocky outcrop in the background.
A Service and the Sacrificial Lamb, historiated initial 'I' cut from an illuminated Antiphonal on vellum [Italy, Pisa, c.1350]
A splendid example of Pisan illumination of the mid-14th century: two intriguing miniatures in one initial depicting a priest celebrating Mass and Moses sacrificing a lamb.
190 x 60mm. The historiated initial 'I' with a priest celebrating Mass in the top half and Moses with a sacrificial lamb below, likely introducing the responsory to the first nocturn for Corpus Christi: 'Immolabit haedum multitudo [...]', from an Antiphonal, reverse with three lines of text and music on a four-line red stave (rubbed, some creasing, losses to the gold and pigment). Mounted and framed.
Provenance:
(1) Another initial from the same choirbook, a historiated initial 'E' with the Temptation of Christ and a scene from Confession was sold at Koller, 18 September 2015, lot 124. Gaudenz Freuler links both of these initials to the choirbooks produced for the Carmelite house of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.
(2) Acquired from Les Enluminures in 2017.
Illumination:
The initial is the work of a highly expressive Pisan illuminator influenced by the work of Buonamico Buffalmacco, Francesco Traini, and the Gothic-infused art of Simone Martini. The artist emerges from the stylistic tradition of Pisan illuminators of the first half of the Trecento, namely the illuminators working with the Master of the Breviario Strozzi 11 in the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence. Freuler links the present cutting and its sister (sold at Koller in 2015) to the same Pisan workshop responsible for the decoration of mss. 570, 580 and 618 from the Carmelite church of Santa Maria del Carmine, now at the Museo di San Marco. These choirbooks, produced under the patronage of the lay confraternities active in the Carmelite church, are datable to c.1334-1348 (on which see L. Alidori Battaglia, 'Tra Pisa e Firenze: miniatori pisani nel XIV secolo', Codex Studies, 5, 2021, pp.3-33). Alidori Battaglia notes how the Koller leaf, along with an initial 'I' in Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis EM 48:6, and two other leaves at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Acc. N. 1488 and Acc. N. 4148, are the work of the primary illuminator of the Graduals of Santa Maria del Carmine, and show the growing Florentine influence of the Maestro Daddesco and the Master of the Dominican Effigies. The Philadelphia cutting is particularly close to ours: Moses as High Priest is depicted in profile placing a lamb over a roaring fire, a rocky outcrop in the background.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts