Friday, February 5, 2016

European manuscript initials, 15th-16th centuries

Giovanni di Paolo
Initial A with Christ and David
ca. 1440
Getty

These painted initial letters were ornamented with microscopic narrative scenes during the 1400s and early 1500s. This was already a late epoch in the history of illuminated manuscripts. By the time these samples were created in Italy the art-form was gasping its few final breaths. Though they are well preserved today at the Getty in Los Angeles, most of these lovelies were mutilated in the past, sliced out of surrounding text. The greatest sinners in this regard were dealers rather than collectors. It is much easier to sell a pretty little picture on a scrap of vellum than a great unwieldy handwritten treatise in a script nobody can read on a subject nobody any longer cares about.

Italian Painter
Initial D with Noah and the Ark
ca. 1495-1510
Getty

Italian Painter
Initial G with St. Blaise
1450s
Getty

attributed to Pisanello
Initial S with the conversion of Paul
1440s
Getty

attributed to Stefano da Verona
Initial A with Pentecost
ca. 1430-35
Getty

Bartolomeo Rigossi
Initial A with Women at the Tomb
ca. 1465
Getty

Bartolomeo Rigossi
Initial N with Christ & the three Marys
ca. 1465
Getty

Franco dei Russi
Initial E with the Adoration of the Magi
1470s
Getty

Matteo da Milano
Initial T with Crucifixion
ca. 1520
Getty

Italian Painter
Initial L with the Baptism of St Augustine
ca. 1430
Getty

Francesco di Antonio del Chierico
Initial S with Job
ca. 1475
Getty

Italian Painter
Initial E with St John the Evangelist
early 16th century
Getty

In relation to the font-size on the screen, illuminations are reproduced larger than life.