The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Leaf from a Gradual: Initial (R) with Mass for the Dead (recto)

Leaf from a Gradual: Initial (R) with Mass for the Dead (recto)

c. 1480
(Italian, 1501)
Italy, Ferrara, 15th century
ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
Sheet: 77 x 52 cm (30 5/16 x 20 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1927.425.2.a
Location: not on view

Description

This leaf was excised from a volume of a large set of choral books known to have been commissioned by Bartolomeo delle Rovere for Ferrara Cathedral. Delle Rovere, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, was the Bishop of Ferrara from 1474 to 1494 and his arms appear in the rondel at the bottom of the page: a shield bearing an oak tree (rovere in Italian) surmounted by a patriarchal cross, the symbol of his rank and authority. Payment records indicate that Argenta worked on the choir books for Ferrara Cathedral from 1478 to 1486. The large historiated initial R dominates the extensive decoration including a realistically painted scene in which a priest (center) surrounded by acolytes stands over the body of the deceased as he reads the Office of the Dead. The ceremony takes place within a vaulted chapel that recedes in space to create the illusion of perspective.
  • Giovanni Pinni, Florence
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned: cat. no. 210 archive.org
  • Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 115): December 7, 2015 -
    Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 117): December 7, 2012 - June 17, 2013.
    The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2010-April 17, 2011).
    Cleveland Museum of Art, (11/06/2010 - 04/17/2011); "The Glory Of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collections"
    Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (organizer) (January 20-May 12, 2002).
    Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 1/20/2002 - 5/12/2002. "Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara", exh. cat. 18, pp. 251-253
    Pages From Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA (April 24-June 8, 1963).
    Berkeley, University Art Gallery, University of California: "Pages from Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XVIth Centuries" April 24-June 8, 1963, cat. no. 53, pl. XXII.
    Cleveland, Severance Hall, "Manuscripts" December, 1957.
    The Toledo Museum of Art: "Medieval and Renaissance Music Manuscripts" January-February, 1953, no. 80.
  • {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Gradual: Initial (R) with Mass for the Dead (recto)|url=false|author=Jacopo Filippo d' Argenta|year=c. 1480|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1927.425.2.a