Beschreibung:

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN, historiated initial V cut from an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT CHOIRBOOK ON VELLUM
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN, historiated initial V cut from an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT CHOIRBOOK ON VELLUM [Bohemia or Hungary, early 16th century] 153 x 166mm. On a highly burnished gold ground, the Twelve Apostles are gathered around the empty tomb, one lifts the linen shroud, while others read, pray and watch the Virgin being raised by two angels up to Christ, who appears on a blue cloud. On the reverse 3 lines of text in a gothic liturgical hand between music in hufnagelschrift neumes on a four-line stave ruled in brown and red (small paint loss to apostle's drapery at left, some slight rubbing of gold.) Green half morocco box. Provenance: Paul Graupe, Berlin auctioneer: his sale 85, 10 December 1928, lot 2; Kurt Arnhold (1887-1951), of Dresden. Originally on the verso of a leaf of an Antiphonary, the initial opens the antiphon Virgo prudentissima quo progrederis pulchra at first Vespers on the Feast of the Assumption (15 August). The text on the reverse is from an antiphon for the preceding Office for the Feast of St Lawrence (10 August). The present initial has been linked stylistically to an illuminated leaf from a north Hungarian Antiphonary in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (Graphic Arts Department no 1940-4515; see I. Berkovits, Illuminated Manuscripts in Hungary , 1969, p.57, pl.XXII). The attention paid by the artist of the Assumption to details such as the individual expressions, gestures and postures of the Apostles, the bald-patch of the disciple facing away from the viewer, and the rosy cheeks and blond curls of the youngest among them, St John, display the progressive tendencies of late Gothic realism identified in the Budapest historiated initial.