GOD APPEARING TO A PROPHET, historiated initial ‘O’ cut from a choirbook on vellum illuminated by Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna [Bologna, c.1390]

GOD APPEARING TO A PROPHET, historiated initial ‘O’ cut from a choirbook on vellum illuminated by Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna [Bologna, c.1390]

An expressive scene illuminated by one of the greatest Italian illuminators of the Trecento.

100 x 100mm (some showthrough and smudging affecting the face of Christ, small losses to the burnished gold and to the blue background). Mounted and framed. Provenance: label on the back of the frame in Spanish: 'Janos Peter Kramer, tiene el agrado de invitar a Ud. y familia, a concurrir a la exposicion de Miniaturas de los siglos XIV y XV, de la casa Maggs Bros Ltd., que se realizara en la Galeria Mueller, sala VI, a partir del dia 10 de Mayo. '

At a time when Bologna was a major centre of manuscript production, Niccolò di Giacomo Nascimbene da Bologna (fl. 1349-1403/4), was one of the leading figures. The present initial, with its carefully balanced composition and finely rendered, expressive figures is a prime example of the artist's work. The soft, pink palette of the stave and the size of the initial could link this cutting to a group of cuttings sold at Sotheby’s, 18 June 1968, lot 125, all from a gradual created for the Carthusian monastery of the Holy Spirit at Farneta, near Lucca (see for example, a historiated initial ‘E’ with the Martyrdom of St Stephen, Metropolitan Museum, 2007.236).

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