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Follower of the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum, Italy, Lombardy, c. 1450
Ascension of Christ in an Initial ‘I’, from a Choir Book
122 × 107 mm
Follower of the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum
Ascension of Christ in an Initial ‘I’, from a Choir Book
Italy, Lombardy, c. 1450
122 × 107 mm
$60000.00
Set against a deep blue ground, the figure of Christ stands out with striking clarity, almost as an apparition. Fine golden rays emanate from his body, while slender and elegant white lines evoke the displacement of air that accompanies his ascent, imparting a sense of spiral motion. Clad in a flowing white tunic, he rises with his hands lifted toward heaven. His profile and hair are distinguished from his garment only by delicate touches of color, while the tunic is defined through softly modeled drapery in shades of gray and white.
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Description
Set against a deep blue ground, the figure of Christ stands out with striking clarity, almost as an apparition. Fine golden rays emanate from his body, while slender and elegant white lines evoke the displacement of air that accompanies his ascent, imparting a sense of spiral motion. Clad in a flowing white tunic, he rises with his hands lifted toward heaven. His profile and hair are distinguished from his garment only by delicate touches of color, while the tunic is defined through softly modeled drapery in shades of gray and white. The positioning of Christ’s body, hands, and feet, further reinforces the dynamic sense of upward movement, guiding the viewer’s eye toward heaven. Beneath him unfolds the terrestrial world, represented by a closely knit group, at the center of which stands the Virgin, surrounded by the apostles, shown half-length with their heads raised toward the sky. Several uplifted hands enhance the perspectival effect, while their upward gazes and expressive gestures convey astonishment and contemplation. The rich chromatic range of the group’s garments (blue, red, and green) contrasts vividly with the luminous whiteness of Christ’s apparition. The two worlds are divided by the mountain of Purgatory, above which Christ rises. The composition is framed by a thin green line and an outer golden border that develops into an architectural structure incorporating an initial ‘I’ formed of elegant Gothic elements. These motifs closely resemble those found in works associated with the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum.
In a study published in 1994, Anna Melograni related the present miniature to an initial ‘P’ depicting the Ascension of Christ, which she attributed to the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum (Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, inv. no. 1963.33). She noted close compositional affinities, both in the pose of Christ and in the arrangement of the witnessing figures, which in our cutting are regrouped into a single compact group in order to adapt to the pictorial space available. This initial ‘P’ may, in turn, be compared with another representation of the same subject in the lavish Breviary of Marie of Savoy (Chambéry, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 4, f. 221v), where Christ, shown in profile with joined hands, rises above the mountain while the apostles direct their gazes upward toward him.
This succession of related images allows for a renewed assessment of the transmission of artistic practices, compositional schemes, and dominant stylistic models, with the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum emerging as a central figure whose influence on Lombard illumination in the first half of the fifteenth century appears decisive. The present cutting has also been associated with an initial ‘V’ depicting the Pentecost, whose present location is unknown (Christie’s, London, 8 December 2016, lot 28). Formerly described as a Sienese work in the Holford Collection catalogue, the initial ‘I’ is more convincingly placed within the artistic orbit of the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum on stylistic grounds.
Gaia Grizzi
provenance
William Young Ottley (1771–1836), this was possibly lot 23 in the Ottley Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 16 May 1838;
Robert Stayner Holford (1808–1892), R. H. Benson, The Holford Collection, Dorchester House, 1927, I, pp. 2, 17, pl. III;
Sir George Holford (1860–1926) see the Holford Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 12 July 1927, lot 8 sold for £130 to;
Tancred Borenius (1885–1948);
Christie’s, London, 12 July 2017, lot 7;
French Private Collection.
literature
Literature:
Levi D’Ancona 1970, p. 25;
Melograni 1994;
Related literature:
Toesca 1912, pp. 838–41;
Stones 1969;
Stefani in Sesti 1985, pp. 823–81;
Tognoli Bardin in Milan 1988, cat. 16–18, pp. 122–25;
Melograni 1990;
Lollini in Bollati 2004, pp. 587–89;
Ritz-Guilbert 2010, pp. 119–298.
learn
Master of the Vitae Imperatorum
Italy, Lombardy, active 1430–1450
In 1912, Pietro Toesca attributed a group of manuscripts to a Milanese illuminator active for Filippo Maria Visconti. Among these works is the manuscript that provided the artist with his name of convenience, a Vitae imperatorum by Suetonius, dated 1431 (Paris, BnF, MS it. 131). This group also comprises several other works, many of which are preserved today in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, where a substantial part of the Visconti library of Pavia ended up, as well as other significant works, including the Breviary of Marie of Savoy (Chambéry, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 4), for which the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum executed part of the decoration. Toesca’s analysis of the work of this prolific artist and his workshop, which exerted a strong influence on Lombard illumination of the fifteenth century, remains fully valid today. After Toesca, scholars considerably expanded the corpus attributed to the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum, until 1969, when Alison Stones proposed separating the works of the artist and his workshop (to which she attributed thirty-eight manuscripts) from those of the Olivetan Master (Cat. no. 10). In 1985, Letizia Stefani, and more recently Anne Ritz-Guilbert, proposed revised lists of attributions. The latter attempted to distinguish between works showing the direct involvement of the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum, those attributable to his circle, and finally, those more generally associated with the Master, resulting in a total of seventy-nine manuscripts (excluding cuttings and diplomas). While scholars are unanimous in associating the style of the Master with that of Michelino da Besozzo, noting contacts with Belbello da Pavia and Tommasino da Vimercate, as well as affinities with Pisanello, opinions often diverge regarding specific attributions. Illuminations are sometimes assigned to different phases in the career of the Master and sometimes to different artists within his workshop. Such divergences invite us, following Fabrizio Lollini, to consider the designation Master of the Vitae Imperatorum less as the identification of a single hand than as a koiné, a shared stylistic language. Although our knowledge of this artist remains imprecise, owing in particular to the lack of archival documentation, it is nevertheless undeniable that the Master must be regarded as one of the most important figures in Lombard late-Gothic illumination in the first half of the fifteenth century.