Master of Sant’Agnese (active end of 13th-beginning of 14th century)
TOBIT AND TOBIAS, initial ‘P’, with an initial ‘I’, two fragments of a choirbook leaf [Bologna, c. 1300]
A wonderfully preserved historiated initial by the Master of Sant’Agnese of Bologna, named by Fabrizio Lollini after his work in three choirbooks in Bologna’s Museo Civico Medievale (cod. 519, 520 and 521), part of a single commission executed around 1300 for the Dominican nuns of Sant’Agnese.

A gradual held by the Museo Nazionale della Musica in Bologna (Ms. Lit 4) has been added to the corpus: at least nine leaves are known to have been excised and to exist both in private collections and at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (see Gaudenz Freuler, Italian Miniatures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries, Milan 2013, pp. 190-205, for discussion). The style of the present initial is typical of the Sant’Agnese Master: the large simplified and static figures of Tobit and Tobias are instilled with the statuesque presence of icons, and show the continued influence of the so-called ‘Second Style’ developed by the Girona Master (fl. 1260-1290) and Jacopino da Reggio (fl. 1265- c. 1300), while the strong blue of the ground, juxtaposed with the paler pink, grey, and green of the initial and the figures that populate it, is typical of Bolognese illumination at the turn of the century.

Provenance:
•The two fragments come from the same leaf, which may have come from the same choirbook as lot 6.
•Private collection, London.

The initial ‘I’ fragment: 270 x 156mm., initial: 110 x 45mm., beginning ‘Ingressus Raphael’, the antiphon for Vespers on the second Sunday of September; the initial ‘P’ fragment: 304 x 211mm., initial: 114 x 90mm., beginning ‘Peto domine’, the first nocturn of Vespers. Mounted.

Please note this lot is the property of a private consignor.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.