LEAF FROM A PATTERN BOOK, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
LEAF FROM A PATTERN BOOK, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [northern Italy, c.1400] 188 x 168mm. The recto with a sketch of two standing figures in brown ink, their faces in a terra verde wash: a bearded man holding a scroll with an inscription identifying him as 'Moises', behind him a crowned woman holding a book-bag; the verso with THREE ELABORATE BANDEROLES in green and pink bisected vertically by a longer banderole in pink and green, the rest of the page filled with illuminators' pen and brush trials with initials in red and blue and scrolling penwork flourishes in gold, red and blue and a bearded man's face in the upper left corner (some wear and staining, formerly used as a front flyleaf in a book). In a modern cloth binding. Provenance : (a) 17th-century inscription 'P Incognitus / A 236' on recto. (b) MARK LANSBURGH , deposited by him at Colorado College (see 'The Drawing Collection at Colorado College', The Art Journal , 29, 1970, fig.8). (c) Sotheby's 22 June 1993, lot 33. A RARE BEHIND-THE-SCENES GLIMPSE INTO THE TECHNIQUES OF RENAISSANCE MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION . The decoration of the present leaf was executed in three stages: first the large central pink and green scrolls, similar examples of which survive in other pattern books (see J. Backhouse, John Scottowe's Alphabet Books , 1974, pls. 3 and 11); next the illuminator's pen and brush trials, and finally the figures with the terra verde underpainting so commonly used in northern Italy as a base for flesh tones. The present leaf, with its banderoles, sketches and variety of flourished initials (in the vein of Giovannino de Grassi's sketch book -- Bergamo, Biblioteca Civica 'Angelo Mai', Cassaf. 1.21), is a rare and fascinating survival of the processes behind Renaissance manuscript illumination.
LEAF FROM A PATTERN BOOK, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
LEAF FROM A PATTERN BOOK, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [northern Italy, c.1400] 188 x 168mm. The recto with a sketch of two standing figures in brown ink, their faces in a terra verde wash: a bearded man holding a scroll with an inscription identifying him as 'Moises', behind him a crowned woman holding a book-bag; the verso with THREE ELABORATE BANDEROLES in green and pink bisected vertically by a longer banderole in pink and green, the rest of the page filled with illuminators' pen and brush trials with initials in red and blue and scrolling penwork flourishes in gold, red and blue and a bearded man's face in the upper left corner (some wear and staining, formerly used as a front flyleaf in a book). In a modern cloth binding. Provenance : (a) 17th-century inscription 'P Incognitus / A 236' on recto. (b) MARK LANSBURGH , deposited by him at Colorado College (see 'The Drawing Collection at Colorado College', The Art Journal , 29, 1970, fig.8). (c) Sotheby's 22 June 1993, lot 33. A RARE BEHIND-THE-SCENES GLIMPSE INTO THE TECHNIQUES OF RENAISSANCE MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION . The decoration of the present leaf was executed in three stages: first the large central pink and green scrolls, similar examples of which survive in other pattern books (see J. Backhouse, John Scottowe's Alphabet Books , 1974, pls. 3 and 11); next the illuminator's pen and brush trials, and finally the figures with the terra verde underpainting so commonly used in northern Italy as a base for flesh tones. The present leaf, with its banderoles, sketches and variety of flourished initials (in the vein of Giovannino de Grassi's sketch book -- Bergamo, Biblioteca Civica 'Angelo Mai', Cassaf. 1.21), is a rare and fascinating survival of the processes behind Renaissance manuscript illumination.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
