THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE, initial I on a leaf from a large-format Antiphonal, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Florence, final quarter 13th century] 470 x 365mm (displayed area of leaf); 370 x 75mm (initial). Initial I in the form of a four-storey tower in shades of blue, ochre and orange with shapes of burnished gold; a pitched roof over an open arcade above three storeys each with a single large arch in which are depicted (1) Adam, Eve and the serpent, (2) Adam and Eve covering themselves before God, and (3) Adam and Eve being driven from the garden by an angel with a fiery sword; below the initial a panel of scrolling blue vines incorporating two animal heads and the body of a dragon; two other letters with fine ornamental pen-work, one including a face; evidence of a smaller initial with foliate extensions on the reverse (originally the recto), six lines written in a gothic bookhand in brown ink between six four-lines staves of red with music of square notation, folio number in red in left margin (minor creasing, a few tiny pigment losses). Mounted and framed. The text, In principio fecit deus , is the first responsory for matins of Septuagesima Sunday. This lively and attractive initial is the work of the illuminator, sometimes known as the Maestro Geometrico, who contributed to the series of choirbooks made for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Other manuscripts and cuttings with illumination by him have been identified by Milvia Bollati in Miniature a Brera 1100-1422 , ed. M. Boskovits (1997), pp.16-17. One of these at least, a Temptation of Christ, seems likely to have originated in the same manuscript, or series of manuscripts, as the present leaf: W.M. Voelkle and R.S. Wieck, The Bernard Breslauer Collection of Manuscript Illuminations (1993), no 61.
THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE, initial I on a leaf from a large-format Antiphonal, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Florence, final quarter 13th century] 470 x 365mm (displayed area of leaf); 370 x 75mm (initial). Initial I in the form of a four-storey tower in shades of blue, ochre and orange with shapes of burnished gold; a pitched roof over an open arcade above three storeys each with a single large arch in which are depicted (1) Adam, Eve and the serpent, (2) Adam and Eve covering themselves before God, and (3) Adam and Eve being driven from the garden by an angel with a fiery sword; below the initial a panel of scrolling blue vines incorporating two animal heads and the body of a dragon; two other letters with fine ornamental pen-work, one including a face; evidence of a smaller initial with foliate extensions on the reverse (originally the recto), six lines written in a gothic bookhand in brown ink between six four-lines staves of red with music of square notation, folio number in red in left margin (minor creasing, a few tiny pigment losses). Mounted and framed. The text, In principio fecit deus , is the first responsory for matins of Septuagesima Sunday. This lively and attractive initial is the work of the illuminator, sometimes known as the Maestro Geometrico, who contributed to the series of choirbooks made for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Other manuscripts and cuttings with illumination by him have been identified by Milvia Bollati in Miniature a Brera 1100-1422 , ed. M. Boskovits (1997), pp.16-17. One of these at least, a Temptation of Christ, seems likely to have originated in the same manuscript, or series of manuscripts, as the present leaf: W.M. Voelkle and R.S. Wieck, The Bernard Breslauer Collection of Manuscript Illuminations (1993), no 61.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
