[LIGHTING] Historical footer. Adoration of... - Lot 8 - Ader

[LIGHTING] Historical footer. Adoration of the Magi Tempera, gouache, ink and burnished gold on parchment. Italy, Ferrara, circa 1450 Atelier ferrarais Dimensions: fragment (H. 64 x L. 150 mm); footer (H. 50 x L. 130 mm) In the centre of an ornate, meticulously executed footer stands out a small scene representing the Adoration of the Magi . Against the background of a starry sky with the Star of the Shepherd, one can see the Virgin and Child, Joseph, Melchior, Baltazar and Gaspard. The three Magi offer their gifts to Christ. The style of the painted medallion and the ornamental decoration are characteristic of the works produced in Ferrara. This fragment was clearly used as a replacement when in 1581 an inscription was copied from the back of the footer, cut out. The note states that on 11 June 1581 Paul, then Bishop of Ferrara, consecrated the altar and the church of St. Anne, through him endowed with the relics of Saints Barnabas, Matthew and Bishop Donatus. It is the church of the Hospital of St. Anne of Ferrara (whose prior is Agostino Mosti) and the bishop of Ferrara in 1581, Paolo Leoni. This consecration is noted by Marcantonio Guarini, Compendio historico dell'origine...delle chiese et luoghi pii delle città e diocesi di Ferrara..., Ferrara, 1621, p. 211. St. Anne's was originally a church and convent of Franciscan friars, built in 1304 outside the Lions' Gate in Ferrara, to be transformed into a hospital in 1444. The text copied on the back of the decorated cul-de-lampe does not allow us to deduce a Franciscan origin for this medallion and the ornament. At most, the manuscript was kept in the entourage of a bishop of Ferrara more than a century after the date of execution of the painted decoration, without it being possible to say whether the inscription was added to the manuscript still bound and intact or cut out to serve as a support for the inscription. In any case, t