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Details
CHRIST IN JUDGEMENT, initial 'A' cut from a Dominican choirbook, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[?northern Italy, mid-13th century]
203 x 145mm overall. The narrow skeletal pink staves of the initial and the area beneath the cross-stroke are inhabited by dragons and their scrolling foliate tails, while the upper compartment of the 'A' contains the figure of Christ, in a mandorla, flanked by two saints each holding and offering a small soul, the terminals at the upper corners of the gold ground contain half-length figures of angels, those at the lower corners with half-length Dominicans, all painted in pink, blue, blue-grey, orange, green and pale yellow, the verso has three lines of script in a round gothic bookhand between three lines of music of square notation on a four-line stave of red (cut to shape, small areas of loss from the gold ground, the largest beside the left-hand saint).
This initial came from a Gradual made for an early Dominican foundation. The saints in the upper register give a literal representation of the introit it introduced -- Ad te levavi Domine animam meam -- for the first Sunday in Advent. In spite of the Italian script and musical notation, the forms and colour of the initial look distinctly northern European and have particular affinities with illumination from Würzburg, for example the Missal of 1246 from the Dominican convent there.
with
ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST, initial 'I' cut from a choirbook [?Avignon, early 14th century]. 305 x 93mm overall, the young saint in a robe of orange and a mantle of blue standing on a leaf spray against a ground of pink decorated with white tendrils and golden disks, points towards the text and music on a four-line red stave, (cut to shape and mounted on vellum, right-hand side of the saint's clothing smudged and with some repaint) (2)
[?northern Italy, mid-13th century]
203 x 145mm overall. The narrow skeletal pink staves of the initial and the area beneath the cross-stroke are inhabited by dragons and their scrolling foliate tails, while the upper compartment of the 'A' contains the figure of Christ, in a mandorla, flanked by two saints each holding and offering a small soul, the terminals at the upper corners of the gold ground contain half-length figures of angels, those at the lower corners with half-length Dominicans, all painted in pink, blue, blue-grey, orange, green and pale yellow, the verso has three lines of script in a round gothic bookhand between three lines of music of square notation on a four-line stave of red (cut to shape, small areas of loss from the gold ground, the largest beside the left-hand saint).
This initial came from a Gradual made for an early Dominican foundation. The saints in the upper register give a literal representation of the introit it introduced -- Ad te levavi Domine animam meam -- for the first Sunday in Advent. In spite of the Italian script and musical notation, the forms and colour of the initial look distinctly northern European and have particular affinities with illumination from Würzburg, for example the Missal of 1246 from the Dominican convent there.
with
ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST, initial 'I' cut from a choirbook [?Avignon, early 14th century]. 305 x 93mm overall, the young saint in a robe of orange and a mantle of blue standing on a leaf spray against a ground of pink decorated with white tendrils and golden disks, points towards the text and music on a four-line red stave, (cut to shape and mounted on vellum, right-hand side of the saint's clothing smudged and with some repaint) (2)
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