Anonymous Bolognese illuminator - photo 1
Anonymous Bolognese illuminator - photo 2

Anonymous Bolognese illuminator

Lot 6
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 756
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1249717
Lot 6 | Anonymous Bolognese illuminator
Estimate value
£ 700 – 1 000
Anonymous Bolognese illuminator
Decorated initial A, on a leaf from an Antiphonal, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Bologna, first quarter 14th century]
A splendid leaf closely linked to a magnificent series of manuscripts produced for the Dominican convent of San Domenico in Bologna.

556 x 370mm. The initial marking an opening from Pentecost (‘Advenit ignis divinus non comburens sed illuminans nec consumens…’), with foliate extensions forming part-borders in the inner and upper margins, rubrics in red, 5 lines of text and music on 4-line staves in red, later folio no ‘114’ on recto (natural vellum flaw and ink smudge to upper margin, a tiny loss to gold disc). Provenance: Bloomsbury Auctions, 6 July 2016, lot 80.

This beautiful leaf shares close artistic ties with a magnificent series of liturgical manuscripts produced c.1307-1324/1326 for the Dominican convent of San Domenico in Bologna. From the complete series of choirbooks, ten volumes of the antiphonals and eleven volumes of the graduals are still found in situ in the library of San Domenico (listed there from 1380) and in the Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna (V. Alce and A. d'Amato, La Biblioteca di S. Domenico in Bologna, Florence, 1961, pp.141-69 and E. D'Agostino and P. Alunni, eds., I corali di San Domenico a Bologna, 2005). They represent the most important example of liturgical illumination from Emilia from the first half of the 14th century, and constitute the prototype for a number of other choirbooks executed for San Domenico and other Bolognese religious houses (G. Mariana Canova, Miniature dell' Italia settentrionale nella Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 1978, nos 6-17). Dispersed leaves from these series of choirbooks and for the antiphonal series made for a convent of Dominican nuns in Bologna with initials illuminated by the Seneca Master (First Master of San Domenico), have most recently been listed and reconstructed by Gaudenz Freuler (Italian Miniatures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries, Silvana, 2013, Vol I, nos.19 & 20, pp.228-271); although these fragments contain historiated initials, the decorative schemes, treatment of initial extensions and accompanying foliate borders share parallels with the present leaf, seen particularly in the use of a shell motif and the palette of blue, red, pale grey and olive green.
Place of origin:Italy, Europe
Auction house category:Books and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
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