- 8
St. Paul in a historiated initial on a leaf from an illuminated choirbook, on vellum [northern Italy (perhaps Milan), c.1500]
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description
- vellum
single leaf, 559mm. by 340mm., with a large historiated initial 'S' (probably opening "Scio cui credidi ..." the Psalm for the Night Office on the Feast of St. Peter, 29 June), 75mm. high, in pink with blue background heightened with scrolling white penwork, and green, blue and red acanthus-leaf sprays and bezant, all on burnished gold ground, 5 lines of text with music on a 4-line red stave, ink eating through individual letters in places, slight cockling, else good, nineteenth- or early twentieth-century frame
Catalogue Note
This is a detailed and well executed miniature. The skill in the portrayal of the saint's beard, his calm and benign facial features, and engaging gaze straight out of the picture towards his viewer, find close parallels in the work of Lombardic artists of the early sixteenth century, such as the so-called Master B.F (see D'Ancona, Wildenstein Collection, 1970, pp.97-105, especially pl.24).