ENLUMINATION. CHOIR BOOK. Set of 3 ornate initials... Lot 12

[ENLUMINATION]. [CHOIR BOOK]. Set of 3 ornate initials from a choir book (antiphonary?). Ink and tempera on parchment. Northern Italy, Forli (?), Venice (?), second half of the 14th century. Fragments cut flush affecting a part of the decoration decorated with initials. Ornate initial A. Size of the fragment : 185 x 272 mm Ornate initial S. Size of the fragment: 221 x 170 mm. It should be noted that in the initial a snake with a bearded man's head, a kind of satyr, is coiled. Ornate initial V. Size of the fragment : 145 x 208 mm. Note that the line of the letter is formed by a winged dragon. These three initials are taken from the same antiphonary. Note the large initial A that usually opens antiphonaries with the responsorial for the first Sunday of Advent: "Aspiciens a longe et ecce video Dei potentiam venientem...". The style of these three miniatures, of large format, recalls certain Venetian illuminators of the Trecento. We think of Giustino de Gherardino da Forli (?) or the Masters of Antiphoners of Pavia Cathedral (see the antiphonaries preserved in Pavia, Archivio Storico Diocesano), all of whom were active in the second half of the 14th century in Forli or in the Veneto. An ornate initial from the choir books of Pavia, close to the style of the present initials, is reproduced by A. Chen (2017, p. 416, fig. 11). Giustino de Gherardino is associated with painted manuscripts for the "Scuola di Carità" in Venice (confraternity of flagellants), including a gradual, which mentions his name (Venice, BNM, Ms. Lat. II, 119 (= 2426)) and one recognizes the "snowflake" type ornament also found in the present initials (A. Chen speaks of "snowflake background...common in illuminations from the Giustino group" (Chen, 2017, p. 412)). See A. Chen, "Giustino di Gherardino da Forlì and the Antiphoners of Pavia Cathedral," in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 59 (2017), pp. 409-419. ATTACHMENT: [ENLUMINATION]. [CHORUS BOOK] Ornate initial R, taken from a choir book (?). Italy, Siena or Perugia, 14th century (2nd quarter ?). Size : 108 x 152 mm