King David before God, in a historiated initial, and other scenes, on a leaf from a very large Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum  [Italy (Florence), mid-15th century]
KING DAVID BEFORE GOD

King David before God, in a historiated initial, and other scenes, on a leaf from a very large Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum  [Italy (Florence), mid-15th century]

EXCEPTIONAL FLORENTINE ILLUMINATION

On recto a very large illuminated initial ‘A’ depicting King David kneeling in a landscape outside his palace, appealing to God above, the blue initial itself modelled with white ornament including a standing angel; to either side are smaller rectangular miniatures depicting a funeral service with white-clad officiants and black-clad mourners either side of the bier before an altar, and Christ rising from the tomb, holding the banner of Resurrection, displaying the wounds in his hands, feet, and side, while soldiers sleep in the foreground; in the lower border a pair of miniatures depict The Annunciation, with archangel Gabriel to the left and the Virgin Mary to the right; further small scenes depict a jester wearing swan-topped headgear and holding a bauble, a horn-blowing figure emerging from a mollusc-shell, and a pair of half-naked figures fighting; the rest of the border and the first line of text composed of semi-naturalistic foliage, incorporating several human heads.

Single leaf, c. 575 × 405 mm, ruled for up to four four-line red staves with square notation and text written in a fine rounded gothic textura script, 1450.

£12,500.00

Text and illumination:

The large initial introduces a phrase from Psalm 24:1 ‘Ad te levavi animam meam deus meus …’ (To thee I have lifted up my soul, my god …’): this is the chant for the first Sunday in Advent, with which Graduals begin. A Gradual contains the parts of the Mass sung by the choir (the parts spoken by the priest are in a Missal), and thus the present leaf has the first piece of music of the first Mass of each liturgical year. The first historiated initial of a Gradual typically illustrates the opening words with a priest raising up his soul to God, but in this case a much more complex and subtle message is conveyed. As the traditional author of the Psalms, it is King David rather than a priest who is represented, and rather than offering up his soul, the iconography is that of David in Penitence, when he asks forgiveness for having caused the death of Uriah and married his widow, Bathsheba. To either side are a funeral service, representing the death of a person, whose soul is thus freed from their body, and The Resurrection, representing Christ’s victory over death.

The iconography is extremely unusual. Not only are the main and subsidiary narrative scenes exceptional but so too, especially, are the jester, the horn-blowing half-figure, and the two fighting men. Similarly, the style is hard to parallel. The dominant leafy forms suggest a Florentine origin or influence, and indeed a very close comparison (for the overall appearance of the leaf, especially the main scene, as well as the pair of small Annunciation miniatures and the foliate ornament), can be found in a leaf from a Psalter attributed to mid-15th-century Florence, now at the Cleveland Museum of Art, online at www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.149.

It seems that our artist was taking the Cleveland leaf as his model, which also explains the unexpected iconography of David in Penitence: this is a common scene in Psalters.

Condition: Some overall abrasion to pigments and gold, staining to extreme edges, some abrasion and creasing of borders.

Stock No.
255940
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King David before God, in a historiated initial, and other scenes, on a leaf from a very large Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum  [Italy (Florence), mid-15th century]
King David before God, in a historiated initial, and other scenes, on a leaf from a very large Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum  [Italy (Florence), mid-15th century]
King David before God, in a historiated initial, and other scenes, on a leaf from a very large Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum  [Italy (Florence), mid-15th century]
King David before God, in a historiated initial, and other scenes, on a leaf from a very large Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum  [Italy (Florence), mid-15th century]
King David before God, in a historiated initial, and other scenes, on a leaf from a very large Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum  [Italy (Florence), mid-15th century]
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