A Monk Adoring the Crown of Thorns, large frontispiece miniature [Italy, Marche?, c.1490-1500]

single leaf, 460x310mm, vellum, the central miniature, excluding its illuminated border, c.135mm in diameter, formerly a flyleaf at the front of a large volume, perhaps a Choirbook, recto blank, the margins stained by the tanned leather turn-ins of its binding, vertical creases, areas of smudging, a repaired hole repainted at the back of the kneeling figure

The lower margin inscribed ‘L’Il(ustrissi)mo Sig(nor) Conte Luca Giannini / dono alla Catedrale di / Pergola 1820(?)’. Pergola is in the Italian Marche, approximately half-way between Urbino and Fabriano; the cathedral was built in the 13th century and used by the Augustinians; Conte Luca Giannini is listed as one of the 30 members of the Consiglio communale of Pergola in the Bolletino delle leggi del regno d’Italia, 1810 and 1812.

The format of the miniature is based on the frontispieces of humanistic texts (e.g. The Painted Page exh.cat., 1995, no.69). The precise object of the kneeling monk’s veneration is unclear: the presence of the scourges, nails, and Crown of Thorns suggests he is not simply adoring the Cross, but the absence of the spear, sponge, etc. suggests it is not the Instruments of the Passion. It is probably significant that the figure looks directly at the Crown of Thorns, and that another Crown of Thorns encircles the whole miniature. The main relic of the Crown of Thorns was at the Sainte Chapelle, Paris, but Pisa had an important relic of one of the thorns, and devotion to it was widespread.