The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 29, 2023

Initial S[alve sancta parens] from a Gradual: Madonna and Child

c. 1370–1374

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci

(Italian, 1339–1399)

Italy, Florence, 14th century

Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum

Sheet: 16 x 13 cm (6 5/16 x 5 1/8 in.)

Gift from J. H. Wade 1924.1012

Location

not on view

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
-1924
Durlacher Brothers, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1924-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
W. M. M. “Illuminated Miniatures in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 12, no. 4 (1925). p. 66, fig. d www.jstor.org
Ricci, Seymour de, William Jerome Wilson, Anne M. Nill, and W. H. Bond. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 1935. II, p. 1930, no. 24,1012
Levi d'Ancona, Mirella. "Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci e il Maestro delle Canzoni," Rivista d'Arte XXXII (1959). pp. 21-23, pl. 34
“Gothic Art 1360-1440.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 7 (1963). fig. 58 www.jstor.org
Pillsbury, Edmund P. Florence and the Arts; Five Centuries of Patronage. 1971. 43
Bent, George R. “The Scriptorium at S. Maria Degli Angeli and Fourteenth Century Manuscript Illumination: Don Silvestro Dei Gherarducci, Don Lorenzo Monaco, and Giovanni Del Biondo.” Zeitschrift Für Kunstgeschichte 55, no. 4 (1992). pp. 507-523 www.jstor.org
Kanter, Laurence B. Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. fig. 16f, cat no. 16f
Exhibition history

Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 6-September 15, 1963).

Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 1971-January 2, 1972).

When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 1, 1981-January 17, 1982).

The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 25-December 19, 1993).

Illuminated Manuscripts. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 10, 2004-October 2, 2005).

The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 6, 2010-April 17, 2011).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.1012