Beschreibung:

Details
Workshop of the Master of Sant'Alessio in Bigiano (Maestro Geometrico)
The Ascension, historiated initial on a leaf from an illuminated manuscript Gradual on vellum [Tuscany or Emilia, c.1280s]
A bold and striking example of the dominant style of illumination in Tuscany and Emilia Romagna at the end of the 13th century.
490 × 335mm, five lines of text and four of music on four-line red staves, the text comprising the end of a rubric (‘[Ascen]sionis ad missam introitus’) and the introit for the mass of the Ascension, ‘Viri Galilei […]’, the initial depicting the Virgin Mary in blue mantle holding a cross, surrounded by a crowd of disciples, some of whom look up or point at a half-length Christ in heaven, the verso with original foliation in the fore-edge margin in red ‘cl’, and 17th(?)-century in black ‘150’ (cockled overall, not significantly affecting the illumination). In a 1930s(?) giltwood frame.
Provenance:
Leo S. Olschki (1861–1940), bookseller, of Florence: the verso inscribed with his pencil stock-number ‘29984’ (which suggests a date c.1907–8, as Federico Botana kindly informs us).
Illumination:
The illumination is datable to the final quarter of the 13th century and can be associated with the series of choirbooks made for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The geometric patterns of the stave are reminiscent of the work of the Master of Sant'Alessio in Bigiano, sometimes known as the Maestro Geometrico (see, for example, an initial 'D' in the Longari collection in Milan, M. Bollati, Miniature a Brera 1100-1422, 1997, pp.103 and 106), whose work was symptomatic of the prevalent style of illumination in Emilia Romagna and Tuscany at the time.
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