Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

From a deluxe Renaissance Missal by the great Sienese illuminator and panel painter, known for his rich saturated palette and bold decorative ornament.
 
350 x 250 mm. Two single leaves, ruled for two columns of 29 lines (written space: 230 x 165 mm), written in black ink in a rotunda script, capitals touched with yellow, rubrics in red with initial in blue, two-line initials alternately in red on blue penwork or blue on red penwork extending into the margins, ONE FIVE-LINE ILLUMINATED INITIAL on burnished gold ground, extending into the margins with a butterfly and gold disks, THREE THREE-TO FOUR-LINE HISTORIATED INITIALS in blue, red, yellow, and green on burnished gold ground with white tracery, extending into acanthus leaves and gold bezants to the height of column, pecked by four cranes in total with brightly-coloured feathers (slight cockling of parchment, slight fading to the ink, dampstain in the upper right corner of the second leaf, minor stains, else in good condition).

The first leaf contains the office for the feast of St. Matthew. The recto of the second leaf contains the offices for the feasts of St. Nicholas and St. Damasus, and the verso the offices for the feasts of St. Lucy and St. Thomas. The offices for St. Nicholas, St. Lucy and St. Thomas are decorated with three- to four-line initials in pink or blue with white penwork and acanthus leaves in red, blue and green on burnished gold grounds. The rich decorative scheme extends to the central and outer borders with cranes, carrot flowers, small swirling acanthus leaves and multiple gold bezants with spikes. The cranes have long, scrolling necks and brightly colored feathers, and they peck at the bezants; one, painted below St. Thomas, has large gold bells around its neck and legs.

These leaves come from the Sanctoral of a Missal made for an as-yet unidentified bishop whose arms were per pale azure and or, an eagle displayed with two heads dimidiated of the same, augmented in fess with an escutcheon gules and a cross gemelle or. The manuscript is attributed to the great Sienese panel painter and illuminator, Sano di Pietro (1405-1481) and his workshop. Sano di Pietro was born in Siena in 1405 and in 1428 his name was listed in the register of the painters’ guild directly below that of Sassetta (c. 1400-1450), presumably his teacher. On the second leaf, the tangible softness of the saints’s subtly modelled faces, as well as the cranes painted in a symphony of colours demonstrate the style and technique of Sano di Pietro. He painted the same cranes in a fragment of a border now in Philadelphia, datable to c. 1440s (Free Library, Lewis E M 76:29A; see fig. 24.10 in Hindman and Toniolo 2021), a Missal made for the Augustinians of Siena, datable c. 1446-1450 (Hindman and Toniolo 2021, figs. 26.2-26.6; Palladino 2003, no. 74), a Gradual dated 1462 made for the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena (Hindman and Toniolo 2021, no. 26), and a Gradual made around 1463-72 for the Piccolomini family (Siena, Piccolomini Library, cod.27.11).
 
Provenance
Private collection, California, USA, MSS 130-131.

Parent manuscript
The parent manuscript was sold by the Andalusia Foundation, Milledgeville, Georgia at Christie’s London on 16 May 1986, lot 21, and by Bruce P. Ferrini in 1987 (Catalogue 1, 1987, no. 45), after which it was dismantled.

Sister leaves
A few sister leaves have appeared on the market, including one from the Sanctoral with an initial representing All Saints (Sotheby’s, London, 6 July 2010, lot 12), and another leaf with an illuminated initial (Christie’s, London, 19 November 2003, lot 5).

LITERATURE
For further literature on the artist, see Pia Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, New Haven and London, 2003; Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo, eds., The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings, Chicago, 2021, pp. 268-283 (with similar marginalia).

Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.