Master of the Donato Commission (active c.1425-c.1470) - photo 1
Master of the Donato Commission (active c.1425-c.1470) - photo 2
Master of the Donato Commission (active c.1425-c.1470) - photo 3
Master of the Donato Commission (active c.1425-c.1470) - photo 4

Master of the Donato Commission (active c.1425-c.1470)

Starting price
£ 30 000
Auction dateClassic
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 993327
Lot 9 | Master of the Donato Commission (active c.1425-c.1470)
Master of the Donato Commission (active c.1425-c.1470)

St Nicholas Enthroned with kneeling laity, and The Crucifixion, two full-page miniatures from an illuminated mariegola on vellum [Venice, c.1430–40]

An exceptional addition to the oeuvre of the Master of the Donato Commission, likely from a mariegola made for the 'Scuola' of Nicolò dei Mendicoli.



285 x 190mm., two leaves, each with a full-page miniature: (a) St Nicholas, dressed as a bishop with mitre and crosier, the three gold balls on his lap, seated on a very elaborate marble throne, a large group of finely-dressed laymen and women kneeling at his feet, and (b) Christ on the Cross, surrounded by four half-length angels, Mary and John to either side, a skull at the base of the Cross and a forest in the background, the reverses blank except for pencil inscriptions ‘(8)’ and ‘9’ (losses of pigment and small areas of the gold background). Mounted and framed.



Provenance:

(1) These miniatures likely faced one another in a mariegola – a statute-book for a guild or confraternity of craftsmen and merchants – whose patron was St Nicholas. As the patron saint of sailors, seafarers and merchants, and also protector of the Venetian fleet, Nicholas was a particularly popular and important saint in Venice. The principal confraternity dedicated to St Nicholas was San Nicolò dei mercanti, but even though the majority of confraternities in Venice admitted both men and women, six (of the 58 studied by F. Ortalli in Per salute delle anime e delli corpi. Scuole piccole a Venezia nel tardo medioevo, 2001) were by statute explicitly male: among these San Nicolò dei mercanti and San Nicolò dei pescivendoli. Since the miniature of St Nicholas with kneeling laity evidently includes women, it is unlikely to have been for the mariegola of one of these confraternities, but plausibly perhaps for that of the smaller confraternity of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli, in the Dorsoduro district on the main island, founded in 1237 (on this and other Venetian confraternities, see L. Monego, Le mariegole latine della scuola di Santa Maria e San Francesco dei mercanti ai Frari, Doctoral Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari, Venice, 2011-12 and also L. Humphrey, La miniatura per le confraternite e le arti veneziane. Mariegole dal 1260 al 1460, 2015).



(2) The reverse of the Crucifixion with a paper label with blue print border, inscribed in ink ‘2.8 98’ (perhaps a date?) and a price(?), perhaps ‘7000’.



(3) Sotheby’s, 29 January 1951, lots 23–24; 23 bought for £ 32 by Edwards and 24 for £30 by Maggs.



Illumination:

The illumination is the most accomplished and sophisticated work of the growing corpus of manuscripts attributable to the Master of the Donato Commission, an important contemporary and collaborator of Cristoforo Cortese (with whom he worked on a two-volume Gradual made for the Certosa di Sant'Andrea al Lido, Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS Lat. III, 18 [=2283, 2284]). The artist takes his name from the opening miniature of the Commission of Francesco Foscari to Bartolomeo Donato, naming him procurator of San Marco in 1427 (Venice, Biblioteca del Museo Correr, ms. Cl. III, 775). Among his known works are the Durant Gradual (Wellesley College Library, MS 2), which contains the Temporal chants for the liturgical year, and its counterpart with the Sanctoral at the British Library (Add. MS 18161), both likely commissioned by the Benedictine nuns of San Zaccaria in Venice; a fragmentary Antiphonal in Oxford and London (Bodleian Library, MS Douce a.1 and British Library, Add. MS 22310); and a Breviary in Bloomington (Lilly Library, ms. Poole 9). Collectively, these commissions greatly expand the oeuvre of the Master of the Donato Commission, proving him to be a significantly more important contemporary of Cristoforo Cortese than has previously been recognised. On this artist, see M. Minazzato, 'Maestro della Commissione Donato', in Dizionario Biografico dei Miniatori Italiani: Secoli IX-XVI, 2004, p.528; D. Guernelli, 'Aggiunte a Cristoforo Cortese e al Maestro della Commissione Donato', Arte Veneta, 72, 2015 (2016), pp.185-188 and L. Armstrong, 'The Master of the Donato Commission', in Liturgical Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300-1425. Inscription and Illumination in the Choir Books of a North German Dominican Convent, 2016, pp. 35-60.



We would like to thank Federica Toniolo for her help with the attribution of the two miniatures.

Place of origin:Italy, Europe
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