![THE RESURRECTION, historiated initial ‘R’ on a leaf cut from a Gradual, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Augsburg, last quarter 15th century].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0018_001(the_resurrection_historiated_initial_r_on_a_leaf_cut_from_a_gradual_il062504).jpg?w=1)
![THE RESURRECTION, historiated initial ‘R’ on a leaf cut from a Gradual, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Augsburg, last quarter 15th century].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0018_000(the_resurrection_historiated_initial_r_on_a_leaf_cut_from_a_gradual_il094837).jpg?w=1)
Details
THE RESURRECTION, historiated initial ‘R’ on a leaf cut from a Gradual, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Augsburg, last quarter 15th century].
440 x 342mm. 10 lines of text below four-line staves bearing music of square notation recto and verso, remnants of foliation ‘Ciii’ on the recto, the initial opening the introit IV for Easter Sunday (‘Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum alleluia’) on the verso (cropped with small loss to border, wear to the gold and pigment, repaired tear to lower quarter of outer margin).
This initial, with its strong palette of blue, red and green, and with punching to the gold-leaf background, is a product of one of the manuscript ateliers which flourished in Augsburg at the end of the 15th century. Particularly fine here are the details which enliven the typical southern German borders of scrolling acanthus: the three Maries next to the sepulchre, from which Christ rises unbeknownst to the sleeping guards, whose misery is made plain with the same tenderness of expression seen in the initial; the birds being hunted by a bestial man; and the angel with a scroll bearing the opening of the Regina coeli. The pinnacle of this Augsburg style, emanating from both monastic and lay ateliers, was represented by the great set of twelve choirbooks begun in 1494 for the Convent of Poor Clares in Munich, St Jakob am Anger, now dismembered and dispersed.
440 x 342mm. 10 lines of text below four-line staves bearing music of square notation recto and verso, remnants of foliation ‘Ciii’ on the recto, the initial opening the introit IV for Easter Sunday (‘Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum alleluia’) on the verso (cropped with small loss to border, wear to the gold and pigment, repaired tear to lower quarter of outer margin).
This initial, with its strong palette of blue, red and green, and with punching to the gold-leaf background, is a product of one of the manuscript ateliers which flourished in Augsburg at the end of the 15th century. Particularly fine here are the details which enliven the typical southern German borders of scrolling acanthus: the three Maries next to the sepulchre, from which Christ rises unbeknownst to the sleeping guards, whose misery is made plain with the same tenderness of expression seen in the initial; the birds being hunted by a bestial man; and the angel with a scroll bearing the opening of the Regina coeli. The pinnacle of this Augsburg style, emanating from both monastic and lay ateliers, was represented by the great set of twelve choirbooks begun in 1494 for the Convent of Poor Clares in Munich, St Jakob am Anger, now dismembered and dispersed.
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