Previous
|
Next
10 
77
Olivetan Master (Fra Girolamo da Milano)
1/2
Show caption
None Hide caption
Olivetan Master (Fra Girolamo da Milano), Italy, Lombardy, c. 1435–1439
Saint Ambrose, in an Initial ‘O’ (?) and Saint Benedict or Romuald
105 × 80 mm (Saint Ambrose)
77 × 47 mm (Saint Benedict or Romuald)
Olivetan Master (Fra Girolamo da Milano)
Saint Ambrose, in an Initial ‘O’ (?) and Saint Benedict or Romuald
Italy, Lombardy, c. 1435–1439
105 × 80 mm (Saint Ambrose)
77 × 47 mm (Saint Benedict or Romuald)
$38000.00
These two fragments depict the bishop of Milan, Saint Ambrose, and a Benedictine abbot, perhaps Benedict or Romuald, wearing the white of the Olivetan order, the green cope brocaded in gold indicating his high status. Saint Ambrose is further distinguished by the inclusion of an image of the Cathedral of Milan behind him and the opening words on the book he holds: Mediolanus civitas… (the city of Milan).
Enquire
Print
10 
77

Description

These two fragments depict the bishop of Milan, Saint Ambrose, and a Benedictine abbot, perhaps Benedict or Romuald, wearing the white of the Olivetan order, the green cope brocaded in gold indicating his high status. Saint Ambrose is further distinguished by the inclusion of an image of the Cathedral of Milan behind him and the opening words on the book he holds: Mediolanus civitas… (the city of Milan). Both miniatures have been previously published as secure attributions to the Olivetan Master and related to a series of other cuttings that mark the height of his career, evidenced by the autograph cutting of the Communion of the Apostles in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. They are both distinguished by the fine modeling, especially in the face of the aging Ambrose, and by their careful attention to decorative detail, including the gold tooling.
 
The cuttings recognized as being by the Olivetan Master have so far been studied based on stylistic comparisons, since many of them, including the present two, are either laid down or badly abraded on the reverse, so that the contents (text and music?) cannot be deciphered. Nearly identical in treatment to the present Saint Ambrose is the larger Saint Ambrose in an initial ‘S’ formerly in the Burke Collection and now in the Getty Museum. With it, as Milvia Bollati has pointed out, can be grouped two other cuttings of Saints Ambrose and Benedict in Philadelphia (Free Library, Lewis E.M. 27:19 and Lewis E.M. 48:2). They share an analogous repertory of motifs in the initial and the framework of the letter. Gaudenz Freuler has further related these cuttings to the beautiful Coronation of the Virgin in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (B 18.754). Analogous to the abbot saint are two figures in the lower right corner of the Washington miniature, while virtual twins to Saint Ambrose appear in the row just above them. The skillful tooling of the gold in the oval that isolates the Virgin and God the Father in the Washington Coronation is identical to the tooling on a similar oval that encircles Saint Ambrose. These parallels have led Freuler to suggest that the Coronation comes from the same manuscript as the present fragments. Bollati believes the second cutting may date slightly later. All of them reveal the influence of the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum along with that of Michelino da Besozzo.
 
One unusual feature distinguishes the work of the Olivetan Master: his frequent use of speech scrolls, such as banderoles, and even more uncommon, his depiction of open books in which the clearly legible words are related to the subject of the miniature. The present fragment of Saint Ambrose is one such example. Another is the large miniature depicting the singing monks in the Olivetan Gradual that introduces the antiphon “Asperges me domine” (Thou shall sprinkle me [with hyssop]), the very words of which appear on the large volume found on the lectern from which the brothers chant. T he cutting of Saint Benedict in Philadelphia shows the abbot holding a book with the opening words of his Rule of Saint Benedict. The manuscript displayed in the Getty Saint Ambrose bears a passage from Saint Ambrose’s De Officiis. These features suggest that the monk-illuminator was as sensitive to the written word as he was to the aesthetics of the image.
 
We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for his expertise

provenance

Chicago, Private Collection; Les Enluminures Ltd.;

Fritz Zeileis, Gallspach, Austria, 1996–2016;

Sold Zurich, Koller, Italian Manuscript Illuminations, 16 September 2016, lot 160;

Private Swiss collection

literature

Literature:

Bollati 2008, figs. 11 and 13, pp. 22, 24, and cat. no. 13, p. 37;

Zeileis 2001– 2014, vol. 4, pp. 344–47;

Bollati in Hindman and Toniolo 2021, pp. 334–39;

 

Related literature:

Stones 1969; Washington D.C. 1975, pp. 61–65, fig. 19 et al;

Mariani Canova 1978, pp. 37–39, fig. 76, pl. D;

Melograni 1990;

Melograni in Medica, Toniolo, and Martoni 2016, pp. 402–404.

learn

Olivetan Master (Fra Girolamo da Milano)

Italy, Lombardy, active 1429–d. 1449

The artist identified himself as an Olivetan monk in the margin of a cutting depicting the Communion of the Apostles in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice (inv. 22099): “quidem frater mediolanensis ordinis montis oliveti hoc opus explevit in m ccc xxxviii” (a certain brother from Milan of the Olivetan order completed this work in 1439). The miniature also bears the coat of arms of Monte Oliveto in the lower margin. Anna Melograni advanced the hypothesis that the Olivetan Master should be identified with the “Frater Jeronimus minator de Mediolano” (brother Girolamo illuminator of Milan), who was present in the general chapter of Monte Oliveto in 1441 and cited as a resident in the monastery of Santi Angelo e Niccolò of Villanova Sillaro near Lodi. She pieced together a chronology from the time he took vows in the monastery of Santa Maria di Baggio in 1429 until 1449 when his name is listed in the Liber mortuorium. He is found in different monasteries including Santa Maria di Baggi (1432, again 1433–1436), Sant’Elena in Venice (1432), San Girolamo di Quarto (1431, 1439–1440), among others. For a complete listing, see Anna Melograno (2016), summarized in a more recent biography by Milvia Bollati (2021). Cuttings constitute the vast majority of his extant output, coming primarily from liturgical manuscripts widely dispersed mostly in public collections. Only two manuscripts are so far known to be by his hand, the Olivetan Gradual in the Beinecke Library (Yale University, New Haven, MS 1184) and a Rule of Saint Benedict (Abbey of Montecassino, no shelfmark). I have often wondered if he included his self-portrait in the magnificent illumination in the Olivetan Gradual, where one monk is so clearly differentiated in the back row from the other singing monks by his pink, puffy cheeks. Alison Stones initially identified the artist as someone working within the workshop of the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum, but over time his unique style was also shaped by the Master of the Modena Hours and Michelino da Besozzo.

Please send me further information about this work.

Please fill in all fields.
Thank you, your inquiry has been received.
Sign up