Christ, in a large initial, from a manuscript choir book most likely decorated by a Picard illuminator working in Naples during the Angevin rule, on vellum
[Italy (Naples), circa 1325]
£ 17,500
Tall and thin cutting from a manuscript leaf, 270mm x 60mm, with large initial ‘I’ enclosing Christ as a standing figure, robed in green and burgundy, with a halo formed from burnished gold with black details, on a dark blue ground with large gold bezants and scrolling white foliage, the foot of the initial trailing off into coloured acanthus leaves and a gold bezant, the later inscription “IES[U]” added over Christ’s body at thigh height, the reverse with remains of 3 lines of music in square notation on 4-line red staves (rastrum 49mm), with one line of text in a gothic liturgical script.
This is a long-lost cutting from a fascinating Neapolitan choir book, apparently produced by French artists in the Kingdom of Naples during the Angevin rule, connected to King Robert of Anjou or a member of his court. 182 leaves of this choir book now survive in the National Museum in Stockholm (MS B.2101, see C. Nordenfalk, Bokmålningar från Medeltid och Renässans, 1979, pp. 82-85), with another less decorative and vibrant cutting offered at Bloomsbury Auctions, London, 9 December 2015, lot 81 (and later reappearing at Sotheby’s, 6 December 2016, lot 5), and others in the collection of Georges Wildenstein (d. 1963; now Paris, Musée Marmottan, M.6123–6125; one reproduced by Nordenfalk, fig. 223). The part now in the National Museum in Stockholm was purchased in Naples in 1857, and saints Francis and Clare are in prominent positions, suggesting that the original parent book was made for the major church of the city, Santa Chiara, or the Franciscan and Clarissan monasteries that are part of the same structure there.
While there are two artists’ hands represented in the illumination of the whole choir book, the one here presents as the most skilful and exceptional. The artist blends Italian and French motifs to form a bewildering and enticing hybrid style of medieval art.
The cuttings in the Wildenstein collection are attributed to an illuminator from Picardy working in Naples (see F. Avril, et al., Les Enluminures: Collection Wildenstein, 2001, no.35; and the same author’s ‘Un atelier “picard” a la Cour des Angevins de Naples’, in “Nobile claret opus”, 1986, pp. 76-77).