Anonymous central or southern Italian artist - photo 1

Anonymous central or southern Italian artist

Lot 2
30.07.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 700
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 381207
Lot 2 | Anonymous central or southern Italian artist
Estimate value
£ 700 – 1 000
KING DAVID PRAYING TO GOD, in an initial' A' cut from an illuminated Gradual on vellum [Abruzzi or Southern Italy, first half 14th century]

A charming, sensitively painted and rare example of 14th-century central Italian — possibly Abruzzese — illumination.

92 x 67mm. The initial 'A' opening the Introit to Mass for the First Sunday of Advent 'Ad te levavi animam meam [...]' (very worn and faded). Pasted down on card.

The elaborate geometric form of the initial, white tracery, and palette are archaising features reminiscent of northern Italian manuscripts of the second half of the thirteenth century. But the modelling of the face and hands of God and David is more modern and redolent of transalpine illumination of the 14th century. The elusive artist can perhaps be located in central or Southern Italy, a region which at the time was under the influence of Anjou. Stylistic comparables can be found in Abruzzese manuscript illumination of the period, for example in the Antiphonal of Santa Maria Paganica (L'Aquila, Archivio Parrocchiale di S. Maria Paganica, A.5), and especially in the historiated initial with Christ blessing on f.2. Here we see the same pale pink initial form delineated in a thick stroke of light blue on the inside, all against a deep blue background, the figure of the blessing Christ compositionally identical (see F. Manzari, 'La miniatura abruzzese di epoca gotica e tardogotica', in Illuminare l’Abruzzo, exhibition catalogue, 2012, pp. 58-88, esp. p.62).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.07.2020 – 30.07.2020
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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