Beschreibung:

Circle of the Master of the Franciscan Breviary
God the Father sending forth the Holy Spirit, historiated initial 'S' cut from an illuminated manuscript on vellum [Lombardy, c.1460]
A jewel-like miniature by a Lombard artist closely associated with the Master of the Franciscan Breviary.
c.100 x 105mm. The historiated initial 'S' perhaps opening the Introit to the Mass on Pentecost Sunday 'Spiritus domini replevit', probably from a Missal rather than a Gradual (burnished gold a little rubbed around the edges, else in excellent condition). Mounted and framed.
Provenance:
(1) Pregliasco, Turin, cat. 69, 1995, p.4, no 10.
(2) Friedrich G. Zeileis, Più ridon le carte, 2014, p. 356; sale at:
(3) Koller, Zurich, 18 September 2015, lot 163.
Illumination:
The style of the initial is strongly reminiscent of the illuminator known as the Master of the Franciscan Breviary from his work in a two-volume Breviary in Bologna (Bib. Univ. Ms 337), especially in the soft pastel-like palette of bright reds, greens, blues and purples, in the pale-pink fleshtones, and in the slightly abstracted style. The intricately punched-gold ground also reveals echoes of the work of Franceschino Zavattari and Michelino da Besozzo: we see a similar approach adopted by the Master of the Franciscan Breviary in an initial in the Museo Civico Amedeo Lia in La Spezia (inv. 514) and later by Giovan Pietro Birago. In format and palette, the present cutting is reminiscent of an initial 'I' with the Ascension of Christ once in the Ottley and Holford collections, sold at Christie's on 12 July 2017, a composition originated by the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum but with echoes of Michelino da Besozzo and Tomasino da Vimercate.