Beschreibung:

Workshop of the First Master of the Cortona Antiphonaries
Christ Blessing, historiated initial, with six other painted initials on thirteen leaves from an Antiphonal, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Tuscany, perhaps Arezzo or Sansepolcro, c.1250-75]
A large fragment from a 13th-century Antiphonal produced in Southern Tuscany by an artist working in the orbit of the First Master of the Cortona Antiphonaries.
470 x 345mm. 13 leaves (six bifolia and a single leaf), 7 lines of text and music on four-line red staves, foliation in the upper right corners, the large historiated initial 'C' with Christ Blessing opening Vespers at Pentecost ('Cum conplerentur', f.86), large painted initials for Easter ('Angelus domini', f.46), the Tuesday after Easter (Virtute magna', f.50), the 2nd Sunday after Easter ('Dignus es', f.64), the 4th Sunday after Easter ('Si oblitus'), Ascension Sunday ('Post passionem'), and the 4th Sunday in September ('Adonay', f.132), rubrics in red, other initials alternately red or blue with contrasting penwork flourishing (somewhat soiled and water-stained at edges, the historiated initial with two horizontal creases).
Provenance:
Sotheby's, 7 July 2015, lot 17.
Illumination:
The style of illumination is a typical product of a workshop of illuminators active in the third quarter of the 13th century in southern Tuscany, working for patrons in Arezzo, Sansepolcro, and Cortona. In the chalky palette of oranges, reds, light and dark blues, the decorative white filigree patterns over the blue grounds, and in the formulaic horizontal physiognomy of the figure of Christ, we see parallels with the workshop of the First Master of the Cortona Antiphonaries and those artists responsible for the illumination of a group of choirbooks in the Archivio Capitolare of Arezzo Cathedral, the Accademia Etrusca of Cortona, and the Biblioteca Comunale in Sansepolcro (on this group of artists and other associated leaves and manuscripts, see G. Freuler, Italian Miniatures, I, 2013, pp.130-135).