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Lot Essay
A splendid leaf from the celebrated series of choir books produced for the Augustinian monks at Lecceto, illuminated by one of the great visionaries of Renaissance Siena, Giovanni di Paolo.
574 x 393mm. The initial ‘V’ opening the sequence for Easter: ‘Victime pascali laudes immolent christiani […]’. 6 lines of music and text, reverse with two elaborate penwork initials and folio number LXXXI in red (upper margin slightly cropped, small tear to lower margin, minor flaking to burnished gold, some marginal thumbing).
The Augustinian hermitage of Lecceto was one of Siena’s most important spiritual communities, reported to have been founded by St Augustine himself. During the 15th century it developed from a simple hermitage into a powerful monastic centre, and it is during this phase that an important series of choirbooks and frescoes were commissioned, in a concerted effort to improve the monastery’s standing. The Lecceto illuminations (now Siena, Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, cod. G.I.8 and cod. H.I.2), alongside the Yates Thompson Divina Commedia illuminated for Alfonso d'Aragona (British Library, MS Yates Thompson 38), are among Giovanni di Paolo’s most eloquent and singular works as a miniaturist, and are a reflection of his is extraordinary ability to render narrative scenes with striking originality.
The present leaf, with its bright and rich palette of blues and reds and the wonderfully elaborate foliate decoration, is a sensitive example of Giovanni’s work. Five sister leaves from the same parent manuscript have recently been identified by Gaudenz Freuler, among which one in a private US collection, and another in the Longari collection, purchased in London at Sotheby's, December 7, 1982, lot 9 (see M. Bollati, 1993). These surviving leaves are practically identical in size, script and page composition to the Leccetan choir books - in particular Gradual cod. H.I.2, which provides a strikingly similar decorative model of the initial letter and the peculiar manner in which the music is framed by a double-ruled line in red ink.
574 x 393mm. The initial ‘V’ opening the sequence for Easter: ‘Victime pascali laudes immolent christiani […]’. 6 lines of music and text, reverse with two elaborate penwork initials and folio number LXXXI in red (upper margin slightly cropped, small tear to lower margin, minor flaking to burnished gold, some marginal thumbing).
The Augustinian hermitage of Lecceto was one of Siena’s most important spiritual communities, reported to have been founded by St Augustine himself. During the 15th century it developed from a simple hermitage into a powerful monastic centre, and it is during this phase that an important series of choirbooks and frescoes were commissioned, in a concerted effort to improve the monastery’s standing. The Lecceto illuminations (now Siena, Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, cod. G.I.8 and cod. H.I.2), alongside the Yates Thompson Divina Commedia illuminated for Alfonso d'Aragona (British Library, MS Yates Thompson 38), are among Giovanni di Paolo’s most eloquent and singular works as a miniaturist, and are a reflection of his is extraordinary ability to render narrative scenes with striking originality.
The present leaf, with its bright and rich palette of blues and reds and the wonderfully elaborate foliate decoration, is a sensitive example of Giovanni’s work. Five sister leaves from the same parent manuscript have recently been identified by Gaudenz Freuler, among which one in a private US collection, and another in the Longari collection, purchased in London at Sotheby's, December 7, 1982, lot 9 (see M. Bollati, 1993). These surviving leaves are practically identical in size, script and page composition to the Leccetan choir books - in particular Gradual cod. H.I.2, which provides a strikingly similar decorative model of the initial letter and the peculiar manner in which the music is framed by a double-ruled line in red ink.