Missale: Fol. 186: Decorated Initial T[e igitur] (full page) (1469): Art, History and Details

Missale: Fol. 186: Decorated Initial T[e igitur] (full page) (1469) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Bartolommeo Caporali (Italian, c. 1420–1503); Giapeco Caporali (Italian, d. 1478).

The work and its context

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

This illuminated manuscript once served as a liturgical service book used on the high altar by a priest for the Mass. The missal’s colophon (inscription) identifies the book as belonging to the church of San Francesco in Montone, a convent of Franciscan friars, and gives its date of completion as October 4, 1469. Here, the volume is opened to its masterpiece, two pages that introduce the canon of the Mass, the most solemn part of the celebration during which the priest consecrates the Eucharistic bread and wine. The missal receives its name from the two Perugian artists who collaborated to illuminate its pages. Here, the Calvary scene featuring the crucified Christ flanked by the Virgin and Saint John is the work of Bartolomeo Caporali, and the marginal decoration and the facing page are likely the work of his brother, Giapeco. Saint Francis’s appearance at the foot of the cross attests to the missal’s Franciscan use and affiliation.

Object facts

• Title: Missale: Fol. 186: Decorated Initial T[e igitur] (full page)
• Date: 1469
• Creator attribution: Bartolommeo Caporali (Italian, c. 1420–1503); Giapeco Caporali (Italian, d. 1478)
• Culture: Italy, Perugia
• Type: Bound Volume
• Technique: ink, tempera and burnished gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Overall: 35 x 25 cm (13 3/4 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2006.154.186.a

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

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.