Description
Along with several other excised leaves and miniatures that survive in various libraries and museums, this decorated initial S was part of a magnificent gradual produced in the scriptorium of the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. The Madonna and Child was a standard image for the Saturday votive Mass to the Virgin. This initial originally introduced the text: Salve sancta parens (“Hail, Holy Mother”).
Provenance
Durlacher Brothers, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art (-1924); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1924-)
Initial S[alve sancta parens] from a Gradual: Madonna and Child
c. 1370–1374
Accession Number
1924.1012
Medium
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Dimensions
Sheet: 16 x 13 cm (6 5/16 x 5 1/8 in.)
Classification
Manuscript
Credit Line
Gift from J. H. Wade
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