Girolamo dai Libri (1474-1555)
Lot 49

Girolamo dai Libri (1474-1555)

All Saints, historiated initial 'C' cut from an Antiphonal [Verona, c.1510-20]

Closed15 December 2021

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GBP 4,375

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Girolamo dai Libri (1474-1555)
All Saints, historiated initial 'C' cut from an Antiphonal [Verona, c.1510-20]
A charming initial by the leading Veronese artist of the early 16th century, Girolamo dai Libri.

c.80 x 75mm, historiated initial ‘C’ likely opening Vespers for All Saints 'Christe redemptor omnium' (gold slightly rubbed, cut to shape). Laid down on blue velvet, framed. Provenance: Sotheby's, 2 December 1986, lot 21.

First attributed to the Veronese artist Girolamo dai Libri by Kay Sutton and Roger Wieck, this initial was later published as the artist's work by Gino Castiglioni in 2007 (‘"Duy quadreti di devotione" e qualche altra novità per Girolamo dai Libri’, Verona Illustrata, 20, 2007, pp.39–53, the present cutting pp. 48–9, ill. as no 39). Girolamo, the most renowned of an illustrious family of illuminators, had a long and productive career. From the begining of the 16th century he undertook work on a monumental scale, producing altarpieces as well as manuscripts for churches in and around Verona, but it was the series of choirbooks he illuminated that were particularly singled out for praise by Vasari in his Life of the artist. The delicate sophistication of modelling of flesh and drapery, the facial features of the four apostles in the foreground, and the initial form with pinks, blues and greens are characteristic of Girolamo's style (see a parallel St Peter, for example in Museo di Castelvecchio, inv. 4361 [1662]).