Leaf from a Gradual: Decorated Initial (verso) (c. 1480): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Gradual: Decorated Initial (verso) (c. 1480) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jacopo Filippo d' Argenta (Italian, 1501).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This leaf was excised from a volume of a large set of choral books known to have been commissioned by Bartolomeo delle Rovere for Ferrara Cathedral. Delle Rovere, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, was the Bishop of Ferrara from 1474 to 1494 and his arms appear in the rondel at the bottom of the page-a shield bearing an oak tree (rovere in Italian) surmounted by a patriarchal cross, the symbol of his rank and authority. Payment records indicate that Argenta worked on the choir books for Ferrara Cathedral from 1478 to 1486. The large historiated initial R dominates the extensive decoration including a realistically painted scene in which a priest (center) surrounded by acolytes stands over the body of the deceased as he reads the Office of the Dead. The ceremony takes place within a vaulted chapel that recedes in space to create the illusion of perspective. This leaf and the one to the right are from the same set of choir books.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Gradual: Decorated Initial (verso)
• Date: c. 1480
• Creator attribution: Jacopo Filippo d' Argenta (Italian, 1501)
• Culture: Italy, Ferrara, 15th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 77 x 52 cm (30 5/16 x 20 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1927.425.2.b

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.