ST BARBARA, historiated initial 'E' on a leaf from an Ferial Psalter on vellum [Lombardy, c.1480s]

An eccentric and colourful historiated initial on a leaf from a large-format Italian Ferial Psalter.

590 x 380mm. 12 lines of text and 3 of music on a red line stave, the text opening the Feast of St Barbara, initials in red and blue (some marginal staining and cockling, light rubbing to burnished gold, remnants of tape to lower margin). Framed.

The initial shares stylistic traits with manuscripts produced in Bergamo in the second half of the fifteenth century. The facial features and treatment of the robes of the Saint are influenced (though in a somewhat exaggerated and naive way) by the work of Jacopo da Balsemo (c.1453-1503), the dominant artist in Bergamo at the time. The style echoes that of two initials at Fitzwilliam in Cambridge (in particular Marlay cutting Z.4a)

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