Antiphonary from Florence Illuminated by Frate Eustachio
Artist/Maker
DatesMade: 16th century
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w x d: Ram 56 x 39 x 2 cm h x w: Mått 51 x 34 cm [ur inventariet]
Inventory numberNMB 1560
AcqusitionPurchase 1947
Other titlesTitle (sv): Blad ur en italiensk bibel eller breviarium Title (en): Antiphonary from Florence Illuminated by Frate Eustachio Original title: Antiphonarium monasticum
DescriptionDescription: NMB 1560 A leaf from an antiphonary with an image of King David. [Florence, c.1500-1525] Catalogue raisonné: NMB 1560 A leaf from an antiphonary with an image of King David. [Florence, c.1500-1525] Physical Description MATERIAL: Gouache and gold on parchment. DIMENSIONS: 510 × 340 mm. NUMBER OF LEAVES: 1. FOLIATION: 49. RULING: 20 lines of text. LANGUAGE: Latin. SCRIPT: Italian rotunda. RUBRICATION: Rubrics in red and blue. Text Dixi custodiam vias meas ut non delinquam in lingua mea…Ab omnibus iniquitatibus meis erue me opprobrium insipienti dedisti me (Psalm 38.1-9). Sister leaves Unknown Decoration The image here is King David in an initial D. The left border of the leaf is decorated with red and blue flowers with gold dots. The initial D is placed in a square decorated with gold leaf, while the letter itself is surrounded with blue and green acanthus leaves. The initial D is pink with blue and gold patterns. King David is depicted here as he was considered to be the author of the psalms. Furthermore, the image of King David is related to the text Dixi custodiam vias meas ut non delinquam in lingua mea (I said: I will take heed to my ways: that I sin not with my tongue) taken from Psalm 38. In the image, the hand of God appears from the right and points to David’s mouth to indicate that he will not sin with his tongue. The hand of God appears from a gold circle. King David himself is praying and kneeling and looks towards the hand of God. He wears a golden circlet crown, has a golden halo, wears an elaborate pink robe that is tied up behind his head and underneath wears green clothes. Provenance Parent volume Unknown Present leaf 1. Purchased by the Nationalmuseum intendent Sixten Strömbom from a Parisian art dealer in 1947. Exhibited 1. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Gyllene böcker. Nyförvärv och nyupptäckter, December 1987-March 1988. Commentary D’Ancona (1962) has attributed the miniature to the illuminator Frate Eustachio, Tommaso di Baldassare di Tommaso (1473-1555). He was professed in 1496 as a converso with the Dominicans at San Marco in Florence (Alexander 2016). There is a related image of King David in profile in similar dress in a psalter found in the convent of San Marco and dating from c.1505. In the beginning of the 16th century, Frate Eustachio illuminated choir books for Florence Cathedral. Over the course of the years 1508-1526 the Opera del Duomo, the administrative body of the cathedral, commissioned and financed 15 graduals and 18 antiphonaries. Frate Eustachio was paid for illuminating three of these choir books for Florence Cathedral between 1521 and 1529 (Tacconi 2005). Further illuminations from five or six of these volumes from Florence Cathedral are attributed to him (Alexander 2016). He was further involved in the illumination of choir books for the cathedral at Viterbo Cathedral, but these disappeared in 1873. Alexander (2016) considers that these choir books might have been cut up for the international art market. The NMB 1560 leaf could have been illuminated by Frate Eustachio for the San Marco convent, Florence Cathedral or Viterbo Cathedral in the first quarter of the 16th century. Its subsequent fate is uncertain. Bibliography Abel, Ulf, and Nils Göran Hökby (eds.), Gyllene böcker. Nyförvärv och nyupptäckter (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1987), no. 81, p. 70. Alexander, Jonathan J. G., The Painted Book in Renaissance Italy 1450-1600 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016), p.157. Bollati, Milvia (ed.), Dizionario biografico dei miniatori Italiani secoli IX-XVI (Milan, Edizioni Sylvestre Bonnard, 2004). D'Ancona, Mirella Levi, Miniatura e miniatori a Firenze dal XIV al XVI secolo (Florence: Olscki, 1962), pp. 246-250. Fabbri, Lorenzo and Marcia S. Tacconi (eds.), I libri del Duomo di Firenze: Codici liturgici e biblioteca di Santa Maria del Fiore (secoli XI-XVI) (Florence: Centro Di, 1997). Garzelli Annarosa and Albinia C. de la Mare, Miniatura fiorentina del rinascimento 1440-1525: Un primo censimento (Florence: Giunta regionale toscana, 1985). Nordenfalk, Carl, Bokmålningar från medeltid och renässans i Nationalmusei samlingar (Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1979), no. 38, pp. 134-135. Sandgren, Eva Lindqvist, Illuminated Manuscripts in Swedish Collections, https://www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/resultList.jsf?dswid=7830&p=1&searchType=EXTENDED&sortString=creationYear_sort_asc&noOfRows=10&af=%5B%22ARCHIVE_ORG_ID_facet%3A67%22%5D&query=&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22HOST%22%3A%22alvin-record%3A471052%22%7D%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D Tacconi, Marica S., ‘Appropriating the Instruments of Worship: The 1512 Medici Restoration and the Florentine Cathedral Choirbooks’ in Renaissance Quarterly, 56 (2003), pp. 333-376. Tacconi, Marica S., Cathedral and Civic Ritual in Late Medieval and Renaissance Florence: The Service Books of Santa Maria del Fiore (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 238, pl. 30. Research project 2022-2023, Illuminated Manuscript, Christian Etheridge, Art Historian.
Collection
Geographical origin