[ENLUMINURE]. Folio from a choir book - Lot 6

[ENLUMINURE]. Folio from a choir book Ornate S initial, introducing the chant "Suscipiens Ihesum in ulnas suas...". Ink, gouache and burnished gold on parchment; staves drawn in red ink (4-line staves), music notated square; rubrics in red; initials painted and watermarked on verso. Italy, Siena, circa 1340-1350. Dimensions: 475 x 344 mm This large folio is taken from a choir book, although it is unclear whether it is an antiphonary or a gradual. Its decoration recalls the ornate and historiated initials attributed to Sienese firms, in particular that of Niccolò di Ser Sozzo, an illuminator active in Siena and San Gimignano in the 14th century (he signed the Codex Caleffo (Siena, Archivio di Stato) and his great Assumption in 1334: "Nicholaus, Ser Sozzi de Senis me pinxit"). Several historiated initials from a dismembered gradual, attributed to Niccolò di Ser Sozzo and commented on by G. Freuler, Italian Miniatures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries, vol. II, Milan, 2012, pp. 486-495, no. 48 and pp. 496-498, no. 49.The layout of the historiated letters, the palette composed of orange, dark green, blue and pale pink, certain characteristic ornaments (in particular a colored 8-point knot, here in the middle of the layout of the letter S; or a green besant with a palmette motif in white) can be found in the present ornate S initial. Several museums preserve leaves attributed to Niccolò di Ser Sozzo, including the leaves described by G. Freuler (see above); Metropolitan Museum of Art (96.32.12); Philadelphia, Free Library, Lewis E M 25:5; Philadelphia, Free Library, Lewis E M 69:9, and others.