[ENLUMINATION]. - Lot 4

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Lot n° 4
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Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
[ENLUMINATION]. - Lot 4
[ENLUMINATION]. Initial S historiated. Holy Woman (Virgin ?). Parchment pasted on a cardboard support. Traces of writing on the back perceptible. Ink and gouache, burnished gold. A few missing burnished gold otherwise very good condition. Northern Italy, Venice, circa 1420, attributable to Cristoforo Cortese (active in Venice, Bologna and Padua, from 1399 to 1445) . This initial and the two others that follow (lot 5 and lot 6) can be linked to the work of Cristoforo Cortese, especially during the first part of his activity when he was established in Venice . These initials seem to us to be very close (and perhaps taken from the same manuscript or from a series of choir books) to those that adorn an antiphonary painted by Cristoforo Cortese for the church of San Salvador in the Merceria district (Venice, Archivio Patriarchale; formerly kept in the Museo Diocesano). It presents similar decorations, the same treatment of the figures on an ultramarine blue background with white highlights, certain particularities such as burnished gold besants set with black, leaving a small black stem protruding, a common palette including a characteristic pale green and brightly colored acanthus leaves. In the present historiated initial "S" we note the layout of the letter with a beautiful dragon that finishes the layout of the "S", with its head colored with white highlights: we find in the San Salvador antiphonary this same ornamental bias in the layout of the letter and the same palette, with ornaments similar in detail. Other historiated initials, perhaps also taken from the same antiphonary, are preserved in London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E. 1112-1925 to 1115-1925 (bequest of Captain John Ball in 1925). Another manuscript painted by Cristoforo Cortese in the early years of his activity has similarities with our three initials, namely a Gradual for the Camaldolese of Murano, of which several extracts are known (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, D.637B-1894; Philadelphia, Free Library, Lewis E M 25:21 and Lewis E M 45:13; London, Sotheby's, December 5, 2012, lot 8; London, Sotheby's, December 5, 2006, lots 68-69; Galerie Les Enluminures, "A Prophet, initial 'D' from a Gradual" and other witnesses). On Cristoforo Cortese, see among others S. Marcon, "Cortese, Cristoforo" in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, secoli IX-XVI, ed. M. Bollati, Milan, 2004, pp. 176-179.
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