Print Specifics:
- Type of print: Lithograph - Original French antique print
- Publisher: Librairie de Firmin Didot, Paris, Rue Jacob 56, 1885-1887.
- Condition: 1 (1. Excellent - 2. Very good - 3. Good - 4. Fair)
- Dimensions: 11 x 15.5 inches (28 x 40 cm), including blank margins (borders) around the image.
- Paper weight: 2 (1. Thick - 2. Heavier - 3. Medium heavy - 4. Slightly heavier - 5. Thin)
- Reverse side: Blank
- Notes: 1.
Green color 'border' around the print in the photo is a contrasting background
on which the print was photographed. 2. Detail of the print is sharper than the photo of the print.
Legend to the illustrations:
- With
the exception of the initial in the middle of the page, this plate is
made up of elements taken from a single source: The Hours of Aragon.
These motifs are supplemented by borders taken from the same Italian
manuscript and shown in the next plate, which bears the symbol of the
epaulet. The character of these ornaments is more exclusively that of
goldwork enriched with gems. In fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century
Italy, young artists started out as apprentice goldsmiths. Artists like
Brunellesco, Ghiberti, Donatello, Nasolino, and Lucca della Robbia,
were no exception to this rule and they had learned to engrave
jewellery and set precious stones before spreading their wings. The
same is true of Mariotto Albertinelli, Andrea del Sarto, or Baccio
Bandinelli, who, like their predecessors, were familiar with the
secrets of this most refined of techniques, having learned to
concentrate their skill, talent and imagination within the most minute
frame so that these "apprentices' had become accomplished artisans
before they took on the range and boldness of superior forms of art.
The creator of the Hours ofAragon is of this school. Alphonse, prince
of Aragon, whose arms adorn the manuscript, was an amateur who took
pleasure in supporting copyists and especially in commissioning
manuscripts illuminated with freshness and brilliance, qualities he
considered to be of utmost importance. He employed eight scribes, who
were permanently occupied, two miniaturists and two bookbinders. The
latter also used the techniques of the goldsmith to decorate the covers
of their books.
A specific binding was given to each book according to its category. In
the Medici Library, sacred works were bound in blue, grammar books in
yellow, poetry in purple, history in red, art books in green, and
philosophy in white. The initial D was painted by Monte di Giovanni di
Favilla, who lived from 1492 to 1528, and spent many years working on
the choir books of the Cathedral of Florence, from which this motif is
taken. This artist was both a prominent mosaicist and a talented
miniaturist. The commentators of Vasari have drawn parallels between
his style and those of Van Eyck and Memling, under whom Monte and his
brother, Gerard, are said to have worked. At the top of the initial is
a vase which contains blooming lily stems painted in natural colours,
along with foliage in the conventional style. At the bottom, an angel
holds a rich jewel made of pearls, amethysts and rubies, the radiance
of which may symbolize the meaning of the saint's name which comes from
Lux, meaning light. The jewel may also be a reminder of the vision
which led to the vocation of this Christian woman: a dream of Saint
Agatha amidst angels and adorned with precious stones. With artists as
educated as the Italians of Florence, it is often possible to find
subtle meanings in their work. In any event, the sword piercing the
martyr's neck indicates that this Saint Lucia is not the virgin of
Bologna, who, to escape the obstinate persecutions of an admirer
enamoured of her eyes, tore them out with her own hands and sent them
to him on a platter.
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