Master of the Franciscan Breviary (active 1440-60) - photo 1
Master of the Franciscan Breviary (active 1440-60) - photo 2
Master of the Franciscan Breviary (active 1440-60) - photo 3

Master of the Franciscan Breviary (active 1440-60)

Lot 18
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 7 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1249779
Lot 18 | Master of the Franciscan Breviary (active 1440-60)
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Master of the Franciscan Breviary (active 1440-60)
Pentecost, in a historiated initial 'D' cut from an illuminated choirbook on vellum [Lombardy, c.1450]
A sparkling example of the work of the Master of the Franciscan Breviary, so-named after a two-volume breviary for Franciscan use now in Bologna.

150 x 163mm. Historiated initial 'D' likely opening the second response of the first nocturne for Pentecost 'Dum complerentur dies pentecoste', reverse with 2 visible lines of text and music on a 4-line red stave. Provenance: 20th-century German pencil inscription on reverse (a few losses and creases to the burnished gold, reverse with remnants of tape, else in excellent condition).

The present miniature is the work of the Master of the Franciscan Breviary, identified in relation to a manuscript Breviary (Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, ms. lat. 337) that has customarily been dated to 1446. Fabrizio Lollini, however, after noticing that the Bologna Breviary contains the Feast of the Transfiguration, proclaimed by Pope Calixtus III in 1457, proposed compelling liturgical and stylistic arguments for redating the manuscript to c.1457-58, contemporary with a breviary in Parma (Biblioteca Palatina, ms. Pal. 6).Characteristic of the artist's style are his diaphanous draperies; his graceful, pale figures with diminutive features; the men's pointed beards; and his architectural initial staves. An analogous treatment of the upturned faces is found in an Ascension of Christ attributable to the Master of the Franciscan Breviary and the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum (Christie's, 19 November 2003, lot 12), while comparable diaphanous draperies a modelling of the faces can be seen in an Assumption of the Virgin sold at Christie's, 8 December 2016, lot 29, previously in volume XIV in the 1812 inventory of the Bessarion choirbooks, described as an 'Antifonario feriale della Pentecoste fino all'Avvento di pag.124' (see G.M. Canova, 'Una illustre serie ricostruita: i corali del Bessarione', Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Arte, XI, 1978, pp. 9-20).

The master's work appears in the renowned series of choirbooks commissioned by Cardinal Bessarion, one of the most intriguing and influential figures of the Renaissance. It is believed that Bessarion commissioned the manuscripts while he was Papal Legate in Bologna, from 1450-55, and that he originally intended them for the newly founded Observant convent of S. Antonio 'de Cypressis' in Constantinople. When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, it became clear that the choirbooks would need a new destination.
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
Preview
10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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