St Andrew, historiated initial 'Q' on a leaf from a Missal on vellum, Perugia, c.1320-30

Perugian Workshop
St Andrew, historiated initial 'Q' on a leaf from a Missal on vellum, Perugia, c.1320-30

An ornate leaf from a Missal made in Perugia, one of the most important centres of book illumination in 14th-century Italy.

367 x 247mm. The leaf containing rubrics and text for the feast of the vigil of Sts Andrew and Saturninus (November 29), 26 lines in two columns, ruled space: 230 x 166mm., the numbers '18' written in faded red ink and '5' in pencil on the recto and '39' in pencil on the verso. Mounted and framed.

Provenance:
(1) Recently published and formerly part of the McCarthy Collection in London, the present leaf is one of at least ten thought to come from a Missal at the Biblioteca del Sacro Convento in Assisi, MS 267. The Missal was originally made for Augustinian use, as inscribed on an opening folio (f.5). Various leaves were excised in the 18th century, the present leaf included (see Freuler 2018; Assirelli and Sesti 1990). Leaves from two other Umbrian Missals have been confused over time; one Missal was owned by Otto Ege and was dismembered in 1941, possibly by Philip Duschnes, who dated the single leaves to 1353 in his Catalogue 48 (1941), no 39 (see also S. de Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, v. 2, 1937, p.1947; S. Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts, 2013, handlist no 122; and M. Ferrari and R. Rouse, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles, Berkeley, 1991, no 2/XIV/ITA/15, p.135).

(2) From an album reportedly sold from the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein in 1871.

(3) Dr. Jörn Günter Antiquariat, Hamburg, Catalogue 6 (2002), no 17d (ill.).

(4) McCarthy Collection, London (inv. no. BM 1455; Freuler 2018, no 49), sold London, Sotheby’s, 6 December 2016, lot 3.

Selected Sister Leaves:
1. The Finding of the True Cross (formerly Les Enluminures, Catalogue 1, 1992, no 3.
2. St John the Evangelist (formerly Les Enluminures, BEL, 1996, no 5).
3. Sts Simon and Jude (formerly Friedrich G. Zeileis collection, Austria, sold Zurich, Galerie Koller, 18 September 2015, lot 112).
4. The Resurrected Christ (formerly Dr. Jörn Günther, Catalogue 6, 2002).
5. St Lucy and St Nicholas (London, McCarthy Collection, inv. no. BM 1458).

For additional leaves, see G. Freuler, The McCarthy Collection, vol. 1, 2018, no 49.

Illumination:
In 2003 Marina Subbioni named our artist the Maestro dei fogli Hindman (Master of the Hindman Leaves) based on two sister leaves published by Les Enluminures. A recent assessment of this group by Gaudenz Freuler emphasises the ambit of the Perugian workshop and its affinities to Umbrian painters in the early 14th century, including the so-called Maestro Espressivo di Santa Chiara and the painters of the Lower Church of San Francesco in Assisi, including Simone Martini (Freuler 2018, no 49, pp.157-161). Notably, the workshop responsible for the parent manuscript took form in the two decades immediately preceding the first record, in 1346, of organized workshops on the 'via dei Cartolari' in Perugia (Welch 2015, p.105).

Probably from Missal MS 267 at the Biblioteca del Sacro Convento in Assisi
From an album reportedly sold from the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein in 1871
Dr. Jörn Günter Antiquariat, Hamburg
McCarthy Collection, London, sold London, Sotheby’s, 6 December 2016, lot 3

Francesco d’Assisi. Documenti e Archivi Codici e Biblioteche Miniature, Milan, 1982, no 128, pp.378-379 (for the parent manuscript Missal, MS 267)

M. Assirelli and E. Sesti, eds., La Biblioteca del Sacro Convento di Assisi: I libri miniati del XIII e del XIV secolo, Assisi, 1990.

M. Subbioni, La miniatura Perugina del Trecento, Perugia, 2003, vol. 1, p. 50, figs. 29-30.

A. Welch, Liturgy, Books and Franciscan Identity in Medieval Umbria, Leiden and Boston, 2015.

G. Freuler, with G. Parpulov. The McCarthy Collection, vol. 1, Italian and Byzantine Miniatures, London, 2018, no 49, fig. 49.1.

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
-