Beschreibung:

CHRIST BLESSING FLANKED BY STS PETER AND PAUL, historiated initial ‘E’ cut from a choirbook on vellum illuminated by Franco de’ Russi [Veneto, c.1470] A grand and glittering miniature by Franco de’ Russi, one of the artists responsible for the illumination of the sumptuous Bible of Borso d’Este of Ferrara – possibly the greatest of all Italian manuscript productions. Influenced by Andrea Mantegna and a pupil of Taddeo Crivelli his style is characterised by a crispness of form and rich, saturated colours. 179 x 146mm. Initial ‘E’ opening the third responsory of the first nocturn for the common of apostles and evangelists ‘Ecce ego mitto vos sicut oves in medio luporum’; verso with three lines of text and two of music (‘[estote] ergo prudentes [sicut] serpents et sim[plices si]cut columb[e]’) (burnished gold lightly rubbed, tiny loss of pigment to the blue of Christ’s robe). Mounted and framed. ‘Francho de messer Zohanne de’ Russi da Mantua’ first appears in records of 1455, where he is listed as working with Taddeo Crivelli on the Bible for Borso d'Este of Ferrara. His work displays elements of Ferrarese illumination, but he was also active in Mantua, Venice, Padua and Urbino (where he worked for Federigo II da Montefeltro), and in each region he absorbed specific stylistic traits. The present cutting closely resembles an Adoration of the Magi in an initial ‘E’ at the Getty Museum (Ms. 83 recto), and like the Getty cutting it is characterized by rich, velvety colours, weighty drapery and bulbous-headed figures.