The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H with the Nativity (recto) and Text (verso)

Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H with the Nativity (recto) and Text (verso)

c. 1480
(?)
ink, tempera and gold on vellum
Leaf: 62.5 x 41 cm (24 5/8 x 16 1/8 in.)
The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2014.25
Location: not on view

Description

The border ornament and initial design of this leaf have stylistic affinities with South German illumination of the late 1400s and particularly with the Augsburg workshops. It survives along with two known sister leaves with textual and illustrative references to Saint Clare. This saint was widely venerated during the Middle Ages and is closely associated with Saint Francis who installed her with a group of nuns in a community at Assisi. Francis prescribed an austere way of life for the nuns who afterward became known as the Poor Clares. Saint Clare died in 1253 and was canonized in 1255. The prominent references to Clare in the parent codex to which this leaf belongs implies that it was made for a religious community of that order, perhaps in Augsburg or elsewhere in South Germany. The text reads: Hodie nobis celorum rex (On this day the king of heaven). This is the first matins response for Christmas Day.
  • L. V. Randall, Montreal; [Bruce Ferrini, Akron]
  • null
    Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned: p. 81, cat. no. 79; Recto Reproduced: p. 81 archive.org
    Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Mentioned: p. 50-53; Reproduced: p. 51
  • Visions of the Divine: Textiles and Manuscripts from Medieval Germany (Manuscript and Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 14, 2016-December 4, 2017).
    The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000).
    CMA, 19 December 1999 - 27 February 2000, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, cat. 79, illus. p. 81
  • {{cite web|title=Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H with the Nativity (recto) and Text (verso)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1480|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2014.25