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St John the Baptist, historiated initial ‘D’ cut from an illuminated manuscript choirbook on vellum [Lombardy, Milan, c. 1430]
Details
Fra Girolamo da Milano (Olivetan Master, active 1425-50)
St John the Baptist, historiated initial ‘D’ cut from an illuminated manuscript choirbook on vellum [Lombardy, Milan, c. 1430]
An elegant, emotionally expressive miniature by Fra Girolamo da Milano.
72 × 70 mm, a cutting, trimmed (in the early 19th-century manner) to the edges of the ornament, and laid down on card, the initial in a typical Lombard palette of green, red, and purple, on a gold ground, the figure wearing a bright red blue-lined cloak, his flesh, hair, and camel-skin tunic all drawn in brown ink on the plain vellum, with painted white highlights (the gold somewhat worn, otherwise in fine condition). Laid down on card and framed.
Illumination:
The style and technique of the present initial is characteristic of Fra Girolamo da Milano. It is notable that although there is some minimal modelling of the dark blue lining of John’s mantle, there is no attempt to model the orange, relying instead on the underdrawing to show through the more translucent pigment. Until his real name was discovered, Girolamo was known as the Olivetan Master, because a very large cutting of a historiated initial in the Cini Collection, Venice, is signed by him as ‘a certain brother of the Olivetan Order’ and dated 1439 (see Le miniature della Fondazione Giorgio Cini: pagine, ritagli, manoscritti, ed. by Massimo Medica and F. Toniolo (exh. cat. Milano, 2016), no 153). The identification of the Olivetan Master as Frater Ieronimus / Fra Girolamo was made by Anna Melograni, 'Appunti di miniatura lombarda. Ricerche sul "Maestro delle Vitae Imperatorum,"' Storia dell'arte, 70 (I990): pp.273-75. For a more extensive study of this master see Melograni, 'I corali quattrocenteschi della Collegiata di S. Lorenzo a Voghera,' Storia dell'arte, 75 (1992): pp.117-64.
St John the Baptist, historiated initial ‘D’ cut from an illuminated manuscript choirbook on vellum [Lombardy, Milan, c. 1430]
An elegant, emotionally expressive miniature by Fra Girolamo da Milano.
72 × 70 mm, a cutting, trimmed (in the early 19th-century manner) to the edges of the ornament, and laid down on card, the initial in a typical Lombard palette of green, red, and purple, on a gold ground, the figure wearing a bright red blue-lined cloak, his flesh, hair, and camel-skin tunic all drawn in brown ink on the plain vellum, with painted white highlights (the gold somewhat worn, otherwise in fine condition). Laid down on card and framed.
Illumination:
The style and technique of the present initial is characteristic of Fra Girolamo da Milano. It is notable that although there is some minimal modelling of the dark blue lining of John’s mantle, there is no attempt to model the orange, relying instead on the underdrawing to show through the more translucent pigment. Until his real name was discovered, Girolamo was known as the Olivetan Master, because a very large cutting of a historiated initial in the Cini Collection, Venice, is signed by him as ‘a certain brother of the Olivetan Order’ and dated 1439 (see Le miniature della Fondazione Giorgio Cini: pagine, ritagli, manoscritti, ed. by Massimo Medica and F. Toniolo (exh. cat. Milano, 2016), no 153). The identification of the Olivetan Master as Frater Ieronimus / Fra Girolamo was made by Anna Melograni, 'Appunti di miniatura lombarda. Ricerche sul "Maestro delle Vitae Imperatorum,"' Storia dell'arte, 70 (I990): pp.273-75. For a more extensive study of this master see Melograni, 'I corali quattrocenteschi della Collegiata di S. Lorenzo a Voghera,' Storia dell'arte, 75 (1992): pp.117-64.
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.
Brought to you by
Thomas Venning
Head of Department, Books and Manuscripts