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Third Master of the Choir Books of San Domenico (Maestro della Natività)
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Third Master of the Choir Books of San Domenico (Maestro della Natività), Italy, Bologna, c. 1315–1320
Saint Dominic, the Virgin Presenting Baby Jesus as God to the World, and Saint Peter Martyr, in three roundels from a bas-de-page
285 × 90 mm
Third Master of the Choir Books of San Domenico (Maestro della Natività)
Saint Dominic, the Virgin Presenting Baby Jesus as God to the World, and Saint Peter Martyr, in three roundels from a bas-de-page
Italy, Bologna, c. 1315–1320
285 × 90 mm
$22000.00
The three roundels, framed within a highly ornamental border of triple circles decorated with alternating rope and lozenge patterns and separated by palmette tendrils, are arranged horizontally. Blank on the verso, they undoubtedly formed the bas-de-page of a Dominican Choir Book, as the presence of paired Dominican saints indicates.
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Description

The three roundels, framed within a highly ornamental border of triple circles decorated with alternating rope and lozenge patterns and separated by palmette tendrils, are arranged horizontally. Blank on the verso, they undoubtedly formed the bas-de-page of a Dominican Choir Book, as the presence of paired Dominican saints indicates. Such extensions of the pictorial program into the lower margin were reserved for leaves of Choir Books relating to major feast days. This feature appears regularly in the celebrated series of Choir Books from San Domenico in Bologna, as well as elsewhere in Bolognese manuscripts from the first decades of the Trecento.
 
It is the central medallion, depicting the enthroned Madonna and Child, that is the key element in the iconography of this fragment. Facing frontally and presented in a hieratic manner to the viewer, following the model of Byzantine apse frescoes such as that in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Virgin holds forth the upright blessing Christ Child and appears to address the viewer with the eloquent gesture of her right hand. On the left, one of the Dominican saints prays before her in humble devotion, while on the right, the other Dominican saint holds an open codex and points toward it. The clearly legible text of the book reads: “[Surge] illuminare, Jerusalem, quia venit lumen tuum...” (Arise, shine O Jerusalem; for thy light is come [and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee]). This is the opening of the Book of Isaiah (60:1ff.), and it formed part of the reading for the Mass of the Epiphany, serving as well for the nocturns of the same feast taking place on January 6. Epiphany, or the Feast of the Three Kings, celebrates the revelation that the baby Jesus was the son of God, as the text of the open book implies. The bas-de-page thus provides a visual gloss on the essential meaning of the feast – the manifestation of the Redeemer to the world – and must have likewise glossed the historiated initial on the same page, probably an image of the Adoration of the Magi.
 
As Gaudenz Freuler has meticulously demonstrated, the Choir Book of San Domenico containing the Masses from the first Sunday of Advent to the first Sunday of Lent (a Gradual, Corale 18) survives only in fragmentary form. It does still preserve a single leaf with a large historiated initial of the Nativity (f. 80v), for which the Maestro della Natività is named. It is, however, missing the single sheet for the opening of the Mass of the Epiphany (f. 96), from which our bas-de-page surely comes. The style of the illuminator of the present fragment is entirely consistent with that of the Nativity, characterized by his voluminous, expansive figures. His style likewise derives from his predecessor, the First Master or the Master of Seneca, responsible for Corale 3, 4, 5, 6, 14, and part of 9, and his collaborator, the Second Master, the Master of B 18, responsible for Corale 9 and for parts of Corale 18. Our artist also painted some of the historiated initials in the Dominican Gradual for the Temporal (Corale 21).
 
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise.

provenance

Convent of San Domenico, Bologna, likely Corale 18, f. 96;

London, art market; since c. 1992, Fritz Zeileis collection, Gallspach, Austria;

Koller, Italienische Buchmalerei aus einer bedeutenden Privatsammlung, Zurich, 18 September 2015, lot 139;

Swiss Private Collection.

literature

Literature:

Zeileis 2001–2014, vol. 4, pp. 90–91;

 

Related literature:

Alce and D’Amato 1961, pp. 139;

D’Agostino and Alunni 2005;

Freuler 2013, vol. 1, pp. 228–47

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The Masters of the Choir Books of San Domenico in Bologna

Italy, Bologna, active c. 1320–1340

A group of six anonymous artists are named after a magnificent series of more than twenty Choir Books made for the Convent of San Domenico in Bologna, where ten volumes of the Antiphonals are still in situ at the Biblioteca of San Domenico and eleven volumes of the Graduals are now in the Museo Civico in Bologna. Based on liturgical evidence, the Choir Books can be closely dated from about 1307 to 1324–1326, and they thus allow us to chart closely developments in Bolognese painting over approximately two decades of the Trecento. The six artists are conveniently named the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Masters of the Choir Books of San Domenico, although each of them have acquired other aliases. The First is the Seneca Master; the Second is the Master of B 18; the Third is the Master of the Nativity (Maestro della Natività); the Fourth is the Master of 1328; the Fifth is the Master of the Gratian in Naples; and the Sixth is without an alias. Although there are subtle differences in the styles of these artists, the overall appearance of the illumination in the volumes is harmonious: large historiated initials sometimes framed in gold, Giottesque figures in primary colors often on lapis grounds, bar borders of acanthus in pale blue, tan, pink, and red, and historiated medalions in the lower margins of the leaves opening the major feasts. During the Napoleonic suppression of Italian monastic orders, the individual volumes were severely plundered, which explains the many missing illuminated leaves and cuttings found today in diverse private and public collections.

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