Null [ENLUMINURE]. [CHOIR BOOK].
Ornate initial I.
Tempera, gouache and gold lea…
Description

[ENLUMINURE]. [CHOIR BOOK]. Ornate initial I. Tempera, gouache and gold leaf on parchment. Italy, Lucca (?), circa 1475 (?). Dimensions: 135 x 244 mm Minor loss of pigments (especially the green), some chipping. This large initial I is reminiscent of the style of historiated initials associated with Lucca Cathedral. There are two fragments preserved at Oberlin College, donated by Robert Lehmann, which are thought to come from a volume in the series of antiphonaries commissioned by Stefano Trenta, bishop of Lucca from 1448 to 1477. The artist responsible for the Oberlin College initials was also involved in two other volumes (commun des saints and sanctoral) housed in Lucca's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (MS 2 and MS 6). This artist has been associated with the production of Lucca artists of the third quarter of the 15th century, such as Baldassare di Biagio and Matteo Civitali (see R. Massagli, in Seil et Silva (dir.), Lucca città d'arte e i suoi archivi, Venice, 2001. See also P. Palldino, Treasures of a Lost Art, New York, 2003, nos. 83a and 83b. Expert: Ariane Adeline

10 

[ENLUMINURE]. [CHOIR BOOK]. Ornate initial I. Tempera, gouache and gold leaf on parchment. Italy, Lucca (?), circa 1475 (?). Dimensions: 135 x 244 mm Minor loss of pigments (especially the green), some chipping. This large initial I is reminiscent of the style of historiated initials associated with Lucca Cathedral. There are two fragments preserved at Oberlin College, donated by Robert Lehmann, which are thought to come from a volume in the series of antiphonaries commissioned by Stefano Trenta, bishop of Lucca from 1448 to 1477. The artist responsible for the Oberlin College initials was also involved in two other volumes (commun des saints and sanctoral) housed in Lucca's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (MS 2 and MS 6). This artist has been associated with the production of Lucca artists of the third quarter of the 15th century, such as Baldassare di Biagio and Matteo Civitali (see R. Massagli, in Seil et Silva (dir.), Lucca città d'arte e i suoi archivi, Venice, 2001. See also P. Palldino, Treasures of a Lost Art, New York, 2003, nos. 83a and 83b. Expert: Ariane Adeline

Auction is over for this lot. See the results

You may also like

[ENLUMINURE]. Fragment of a choir book (Gradual or Antiphonary?) Historiated Q initial Adoration of the shepherds France, Paris, circa 1530-1540 Anonymous illuminator influenced by the Groupe Etienne Colaud (?) (active in Paris from 1512 to circa 1540) Dimensions: 152 x 170 mm Illumination mounted on a cardboard base, framed in ink and marked "Peinture sur vélin" (size of cardboard base: 186 x 202 mm). This handsome historiated initial can be traced back to the 1520s-1540s. The historiated initial is inscribed in a blue lettering with white highlights, set against a liquid gold background and decorated with vine leaves and floral motifs. This type of motif is found in an Evangeliary preserved at the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, MS 106, and is associated with the Colaud group and possibly with an artist known in the archives as Jean Leclerc (?), a collaborator of Etienne Colaud (see M.-B. Cousseau, Enlumineur anonyme (Jean Leclerc?), in Enluminures du Louvre (2011), cat. 127). In some respects, the present illumination recalls the work of an artist identified as Martial Vaillant, son-in-law of Etienne Colaud, documented in Paris since 1523 (he was one of the governors of the Confrérie des Enlumineurs Saint-Jean l'Evangéliste), painter of a Book of Hours for the Dauphin François (Paris, BnF, NAL 104, Heures peintes en deux campagnes, l'une dans les années 1530 et l'autre plus tard dans les années 1550 pour les encadrement ; see M.-B. Cousseau, Etienne Colaud et l'enluminure parisienne sous le règne de François Ier (2016), pp. 87-91). Further research is needed to better identify the illuminator of this initial, which also shows influences from the major artist of these decades, namely Noël Bellemare, whose compositions influenced the artists of the "Colaud group". Expert: Ariane ADELINE