Beschreibung:

Details
Frate Nebridio (active 1460s-90s)
A physician saint holding a casket, historiated initial 'I' cut from an illuminated Antiphonal on vellum [northern Italy, perhaps Cremona, c.1460-80]
An elegant example of the art of Frate Nebridio, from an Augustinian Antiphonal produced for a convent in Cremona, perhaps that of Santa Maria.
106 x 87mm. The initial 'I' perhaps opening the Common of One Martyr outside Paschaltide 'Iste sanctus', verso with lines of text: '[Scuto] bone vol[untatis tuae / coronasti] domine. Ps. [...] In universa t[erra gloria et honore /coron]nasti eu[m] d[omi]ne' (some slight flaking and loss of pigment, burnished gold a little rubbed).
Provenance:
(1) The verso bears the pencil inscription 'from the Cathedral of Como'. Many of the cuttings that bear this inscription are stylistically attributable to Cremona, and can be traced back to the 11 May 1838 catalogue of the sale of William Young Ottley (1771-1836), English collector and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum.
(2) John Rushout, second Baron Northwick (1770-1859), and by descent to Edward George Spencer Churchill (1876-1964): Northwick Park sale at Sotheby’s, 16 November 1925, part lot 118, bought by Saunders for £62.
(3) Robert Lehman (1891-1969), banker, and head of the Lehman Brothers. Published in S. de Ricci, Census II, 1937, p.1715 as C.24, and M. Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, p.129, no 62c, with colour plate.
(4) Robert J. Parsons of Wilmington, North Carolina; sold at Sotheby's 6 July 2010, lot 14.
Illumination:
Palladino links this and three other fragments from the same Augustinian antiphonal (an initial 'E' with St Nicholas of Tolentino; an initial 'A' with Sts Maurice and Theofredus, now J. Paul Getty Museum, MS.91; and an initial 'I' with Augustinian Nuns in a Church, recently with Les Enluminures) to a well-known miniature in the Museo Civico, Bologna (Coll. Pall. no 673), showing St Augustine in an initial 'E', identical in style and stave height and signed in the scroll held by the Saint 'El mio filio Frate Nebridio si me a dipinto ad honorem dei, etc.' ('My son, Brother Nebridio, painted me so in honour of God, etc.'). The Augustine cutting was first published by Mirella Levi d'Ancona (Arte Lombarda, 8, 1963, pp.87-92)., who identified its author, the Dominican monk Frate Nebridio, one of the illuminators employed to complete a grand series of choirbooks for the duomo of Cremona in the second half of the 15th century, as well as contributing work to manuscripts painted for other religious houses in Lombardy and for lay patrons (see also M. Faraoni, ‘Frate Nebridio Miniatore e Un Inedito Codice Lodigiano’, Arte Lombarda, no 167 [1], 2013, pp.106–09). Nebridio’s hand first appears in manuscripts painted in the 1460s – he collaborated with other artists on a copy of Sallust’s Bellum Jugurtinum and Bellum Catilinarium (Paris, BnF, Lat. 18272) and a Breviary for the convent of San Domenico in Cremona, both completed in 1467 – and he was active until at least the mid-1490s. His style is characterised by long, thin hands, round-eyed faces and small mouths; as seen in the present cutting, which perhaps depicts Cosmas or Damian, the twin patron saints of medical practitioners and the Medici family (feast day 27 September).
Special notice
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.