Initial G[audeamus omnes] from a Gradual: The Court of Heaven

1371-77

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci

(Italian, 1339-1399)

Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum

Sheet: 38.6 x 36.5 cm (15 3/16 x 14 3/8 in.); Framed: 68.9 x 53 cm (27 1/8 x 20 7/8 in.); Matted: 63.5 x 47.6 cm (25 x 18 3/4 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1930.105

Location

not on view

Description

This elegant and colorful initial G comes from a multivolume set of choral books illuminated by Don Silvestro, a Camaldolese monk, for his monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. In the original book, this initial would have introduced the text: Gaudeamus omnes in Domino (“Let us rejoice in the Lord”), the beginning of Introit, the introduction, for the Feast of All Saints on November 1. This beautiful initial is generally considered to be the artist’s masterpiece.

Provenance

W.Y. Ottley (London, 1838, no. 182); Edouard Kann, Paris.

Citations

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 57 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 57 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 65 archive.org

Exhibition history

CMA: "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the CMA" June 26-October 4, 1936, no. 135, p. 58, repr. pl. XIII.

Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, "Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance" January 27-March 13, 1949, cat. no. 175, p. 64, repr. pl. LXVII.

Los Angeles County Museum, "Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts" November 25, 1953-January 9, 1954, no. 100, repr.

Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, "The International Style" October 23-December 2, 1962, no. 74, p. 75, repr.

The Cleveland Museum of Art, "Gothic Art, 1360-1440" August 8-September 15, 1963, no. 59, p. 209, repr. p. 181.

The Cleveland Museum of Art (10/10/2004 - 10/02/2005); "Illuminated Manuscripts"

London, Wildenstein & Co., "The Art of Painting in Florence and Siena from 1250 to 1500" 1965, p. 12, no. 19.

Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007) and the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008): "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art"

The Cleveland Museum of Art, "Florence and the Arts-Five Centuries of Patronage" 1971; cat. no. 44, repr.

Atlanta, High Museum of Art, "Italian Renaissance Illuminations" December 16, 1973-February 15, 1974; cat. no. 21, repr. fig 6.

Cleveland Museum of Art, "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art" September 25-December 19, 1993.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Paintings and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300-1450" November 18, 1994-February 26, 1995.

Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007), the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008) and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2/13/2009 - 6/7/2009): "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art"

Cleveland Museum of Art, (11/06/2010 - 04/17/2011); "The Glory Of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collections"

Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 115): December 7, 2015 -

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 6-September 15, 1963).

Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 1971-January 2, 1972).

The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 25-December 19, 1993).

Illuminated Manuscripts. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 10, 2004-October 2, 2005).

Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Center for the Visual Arts (February 13-June 7, 2009).

The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 6, 2010-April 17, 2011).

Italian Choral Books of the Renaissance- Gallery 115 Rotation – December 2015. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 14, 2015-December 2, 2016).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Initial G[audeamus omnes] from a Gradual: The Court of Heaven|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1930.105|author=Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci|year=1371-77|access-date=13 November 2019|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Initial G[audeamus omnes] from a Gradual: The Court of Heaven

Initial G[audeamus omnes] from a Gradual: The Court of Heaven

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci

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