Attavante degli Attavanti (1452 - c.1525) - photo 1
Attavante degli Attavanti (1452 - c.1525) - photo 2

Attavante degli Attavanti (1452 - c.1525)

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£ 3 024
Auction dateClassic
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 993382
Lot 30 | Attavante degli Attavanti (1452 - c.1525)
Attavante degli Attavanti (1452 - c.1525)

Two borders with Medici devices cut from a Choirbook(?) of Pope Leo X, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Florence, c.1515]

Two fragments of what would once have been an imposing and sumptuous manuscript produced for Pope Leo X, illuminated by Vante di Gabriello di Vante Attavanti, also known as Attavante degli Attavanti. ‘The most famous and most representative artist of Italian miniature painting’.



c.440-445 x 47-50mm, two vertical border cuttings from the left margins of their leaves, each with scrolling acanthus and other foliage and a putto sitting on a roundel at the centre, each with an emblem of Pope Leo X, one with a diamond ring, three feathers, and motto ‘Semper’ on a scroll, the other with a yoke, initial ‘N’, and motto ‘Suave’ on a scroll (each formerly cut in half neatly and later rejoined, otherwise in excellent condition). Mounted on velvet and framed.



Provenance:

(1) The parent manuscript was produced for Pope Leo X, or Giovanni Lorenzo de Medici, a notable patron of the arts under whose reign significant progress was made in the rebuilding of St Peter’s Basilica and redevelopment of the Vatican rooms. The present cuttings likely originate from manuscript A.I.3 or A.I.4 of the Sistine Inventory of 1714 (see E. De Laurentiis, The Lost Manuscripts from the Sistine Chapel, 2011, pp.331 and 369). Similar borders can be found at Cambridge University Library, Ms. Add. 4165 (15) and Christie's New York, 26 October 2016, lot 41, sold for $15,000.



(2) Luigi Celotti (1759-1843), doubtless among the many cuttings from Leo X service books that he brought to England, probably in his sale at Christie's, 26 May 1825, part of lots 51 or 52 (‘two rows of splendid border, enriched with […] the Armorial Bearings of Pope Leo, and the devices and mottos used by him’).



(3) William Young Ottley (1771-1836), his posthumous sale at Sotheby’s, 11 May 1838, part of lot 218, bought by Carden, most of whose purchases were later owned by:



(4) William Horatio Crawford (1815-1888), of Lakelands, sold with the residue of his library, Sotheby’s, 15 June, 1959, lot 120 (item 4), bought for £160 by:



(5) Alan Thomas (d.1992): his Catalogue 8 (1961), item 17.



(6) Sold anonymously at Sotheby’s, 21 June 1988, lot 36 (items a and c), bought for £4,400 by Quaritch.



Illumination:

Attavante’s elegant, expressive style was influenced by the work of Domenico Ghirlandaio and Antonio Pollaiuolo. His first recorded work, dated 1483, is a missal produced for Thomas James, bishop of Dol-de-Bretagne. He would go on to produce several manuscripts for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary and the Medici family, among whom Pope Leo X.





Literature

Patrizia Tosini, ‘Una collaborazione tra Matteo da Milano e Attavante degli Attavanti: il manoscritto 1010 dell’Ospedale del SS. Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum’, Rivista di storia della miniatura, 8 (2003–04), pp. 135–44, at 137 and fig. 11.



Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.
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