- 16
The Ascension of Christ, large historiated initial on a leaf from a manuscript Gradual, in Latin, on vellum
Estimate
1,200 - 1,800 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
a single leaf, 325mm. by 240mm., 9 lines of text in a gothic hand and of music on 4-line red stave, rubrics in red, responses and versicles in smaller script within red cartouches, 6 large red or blue initials with penwork in both colours, large historiated initial ‘V’ (“Viri galilei …”, introit for Mass on Ascension Sunday), 61mm. by 54mm., showing Christ half-length holding a chalice and rising upwards in an arc of cloud watched from below by all twelve standing apostles, painted in colours within a split leafy initial on a panel ground, the faces of the apostles mostly rubbed, other slight wear and fading, in a paper mount
Catalogue Note
The script could be southern French, even from the Pyrenees, but the illumination, with rather crisp gothic features is characteristic of illumination from Genoa (compare, for example, the Ambrosian cutting sold in these rooms, 5 December 2000, lot 9, or no.61 in Voelkle and Wiecke, Breslauer catalogue, 1992, pp.168-9). The manuscript was perhaps illuminated in Genoa or elsewhere in the Genoese republic along the Mediterranean coast where Italian and French cultures merge and combine.