Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna (active c.1349-1403) - photo 1
Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna (active c.1349-1403) - photo 2

Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna (active c.1349-1403)

Lot 11
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 8 820
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1249890
Lot 11 | Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna (active c.1349-1403)
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna (active c.1349-1403)
The Baptism of Christ, historiated initial 'H' cut from an illuminated choirbook on vellum [Bologna c.1370]
A splendidly expressive and sensitive representation of the Baptism of Christ displaying the artistic flair that made Niccolò one of the greatest Italian illuminators of the Trecento; combining his fine rendering of detail with a strong narrative awareness.

91 x 73mm, the initial likely opening the first responsory for the first nocturn of matins for the Epiphany, 'Hodie in Iordane baptizato Domino', verso with five visible lines of text (gold a little rubbed, slight loss of pigment to the contour of the Baptist's face, else in excellent condition). Provenance: Paris, Ader, 27 June 2019, lot 15.

Niccolò’s work is identified around the Antiphonal leaf in Los Angeles with the inscription ‘Ego Nicholau[s] d[e] Bononia feci’ (LACMA, M.75.3). He was arguably the leading illuminator in Bologna at a time when the city was a major centre of manuscript production. He was called upon to embellish manuscripts for a wide variety of private, church and civic patrons. Like the Antiphonal to which the Los Angeles leaf belonged, the present initial clearly came from a choirbook destined for a Dominican church. Niccolò undertook commissions for several Dominican convents, quite often for female houses: it is plausible that the present miniature can be associated with those reconstructed by Gaudenz Freuler as part of the same artistic project, a set of Dominican antiphonals including the Proper of Time and the Proper of Saints (this reconstruction includes cuttings at the Cleveland Museum of Art, at the Philadelphia Free Library, at the National Art Gallery in Washington, at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, among others - see G. Freuler, Italian Miniatures, I, 2013, pp.284-293).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
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