ID 1249838
Lot 7 | Circle of the Master of 1328
Estimate value
£ 5 000 – 8 000
Dominicans singing and Christ blessing, historiated initial 'B' cut from a choirbook on vellum [Bologna, c.1330]
A charming initial with singing Dominicans painted in Bologna by an artist working in the circle of the Master of 1328.
144 x 118mm. Historiated initial 'B' with two Dominican monks singing, above them Christ blessing, reverse with two lines of text on a four-line stave, rubric in red, one large initial in red with blue penwork decoration (some smudging to background colours). Provenance: Paris, Ader, 27 June 2019, lot 12.
This style of illumination is rooted in the work of those anonymous masters who decorated choirbooks for the convent of San Domenico in Bologna towards the end of the first quarter of the 14th century. Comparisons can be drawn with the work of the so-called Master of 1328, tentatively identified as a Bolognese illuminator Pietro who in 1332-1333 received payment for the illustrations of the choirbooks for the Santissima Annunziata in Florence (on this, see G. Freuler, Italian Miniatures, 2013, I, p.213). Previously known as the Fourth Master of San Domenico (P.V. Alce and P.A. D'Amato, La Biblioteca di S. Domenico in Bologna, 1961, pp.143-45), he was renamed after a Matricola illuminated in 1328, but his activity stretched beyond 1340. We see similar starkly shaded, fore-shortened faces and well-articulated rhytmic draperies, but the quality is not quite as refined as his best work. A significant body of Bolognese manuscripts has been attributed to the Master (see M. Medica, Haec Sunt Statuta: Le corporazioni medievali nelle miniature bolognesi, 1999, p.120). A sister cutting by the same artist as our miniature depicting an executioner beheading two saints in an initial 'A' is at Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS McClean 201.13c.
Place of origin: | Italy, Europe |
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Auction house category: | Books and manuscripts |
Place of origin: | Italy, Europe |
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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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Phone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
Buyer Premium | see on Website | |
Conditions of purchase | Conditions of purchase |
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