Beschreibung:

DAVID BEFORE CHRIST THE REDEEMER, an historiated initial B cut from a Choirbook, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. [Lombardy, 3rd quarter 15th century] 274mm x 195mm (cutting), 130mm x 130mm (initial). The crowned king dressed in a green robe with a blue-grey lining stands in a dark barren landscape below the figure of the Redeemer, the dark blue background with gold striations, some swirling to indicate the movement of Christ's figure;initial staves of rich pink patterned with crimson and with white foliate decoration, acanthus terminals of green and red into the margins, the initial against a ground of burnished gold; three lines of text written in black ink in a gothic bookhand between four lines of music of square notation on a four-line stave with only the lowest line in red; the reverse with rubrics of red and a calligraphic initial containing a mitred head (vellum darkened and rubbing of initial staves, terminals and ground of gold). The initial opens the start of Psalm 33 Benedicam domino in omni tempore semper -- I will bless the Lord at all times -- and is illustrated with the Psalmist enacting these words by praying to his resurrected descendant. Set in a night landscape and implying Christ's movement by the disruption of the golden clouds it is a dramatic treatment of an unusual subject. Another initial by this illuminator is now in Venice (G. Mariani Canova, Miniature dell'Italia settentrionale nella Fondazione Giorgio Cini , 1978, no 86). It has been suggested that these two, an initial in the Free Library, Philadelphia (M28:9) and two initials once in the Lehman collection all originated in the same Gradual: P. Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art , 2003, pp.110-111. The heavily stylised figures and setting all indicate an origin in Lombardy.