Beschreibung:

Bartolomeo Caporali attributed to (fl.1442-1503) Coronation of the Virgin, in an initial 'D', cutting on vellum, Perugia, c.1485-90 A magnificent and unusually large historiated initial 'D' illustrated with a monumental scene of the Coronation of the Virgin based on a lost composition by Filippo Lippi recently described by Gaudenz Freuler as 'one of the most splendid examples of the art of Renaissance manuscript illumination in Perugia.' 240 x c.256mm. Historiated initial 'D' with the Coronation of the Virgin. Mounted and framed. Provenance: (1) Carlo Prayer (1826-1900), Milan, his collector’s mark in the lower left corner (see Lugt 2044). (2) Maria Shira Leila Méndez de Bernasconi, inscription on the verso: her sale London, Christie’s 24 June 1987, lot 232. (3) Sir John Pope Hennessy, Florence and New York: his sale New York, Sotheby’s, January 1, 1996, lot 10. (4) Paris and London, Les Enluminures, BEL, 1996, no 17. (5) Private Collection, Austria (F. Zeileis, Più ridon le carte, 2014, pp.401-402). Illumination: In the last half of the 15th century, Bartolomeo Caporali worked as a fresco painter and an illuminator in Perugia, where he transformed Perugian illumination through the lens of the Florentines, specifically Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli He collaborated with his brother Giapeco (d.1476). Their style is difficult to distinguish one from the other, and some of their creations have since been reattributed to contemporaries such as Pierantonio di Niccolò di Pocciolo. Freuler agrees with earlier cataloguers that the opulence of the ornamental jewelry and the tangle of colourful foliate and floral decoration in the Coronation is similar to creations by the Caporali workshop and recalls the Missal recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The central composition, however, is not so easy to situate within Caporali’s work. It is based on a lost Coronation of the Virgin by Fra Filippo Lippi reused by the artist in 1469, the year of his death, in the Cathedral of Spoleto. The present miniature must, thus, postdate this fresco. Freuler argues that it shows the influence of the great Perugian painters Pinturicchio, Perugino, and Signorelli. The largest group of important miniatures previously attributed to Caporali, the depictions of the gates of Perugia, is now ascribed to Pinturicchio and to a related painter, Tommaso di Mascio Scarfone. Freuler tentatively suggests that the present painting may also be by Scarfone. In spite of the uncertain state of the attribution, the miniature emerges as an elegant example of Renaissance painting at a critical moment in its history. Provenance Carlo Prayer (1826-1900), Milan Maria Shira Leila Méndez de Bernasconi Sir John Pope Hennessy, Florence and New York Paris and London, Les Enluminures, BEL, 1996, no 17 Private Collection, Austria