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Cutting from a Manuscript: Initial [D]
Italian
Renaissance
late 15th century–early 16th century
Place of Manufacture: Italy
Medium/Technique
Tempera and gold on parchment
Dimensions
Overall: 6.7 x 6.2 cm (2 5/8 x 2 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Miss Aimée and Miss Rosamond Lamb
Accession Number1979.496
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts – Manuscripts
DescriptionA cutting from a manuscript with an Old Testament figure, possibly Daniel, in brown tunic and red, white-trimmed cloak, hands clasped at prayer gazing up at the head of God peering down from a heavenly aperture, with a lion (as a stylized dragon) in background, verso blank, in a foliate letter [D] on a gold-leaf background. The size of the miniature suggests that the cutting came from a choir book, either a gradual or an antiphonary. However, there are no liturgical offices that would be historiated with this image in the letter [D]. If this is indeed a representation of Daniel, it seems more likely that the initial was cut from a large Bible, where it began Jerome's prologue to the Book of Daniel, which begins "Danielem prophetam iuxta…" With no text on the verso, however, the question of the cutting's source must remain open.
ProvenanceBy 1979, Aimée and Rosamond Lamb, Boston, MA; gift of Aimée and Rosamond Lamb. (Accession date: October 17, 1979)