Leaf from a Gradual, with the Initial D ("Dispersit"): The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence
Artist/Maker
Master of the Vitae Imperatorum
Dateca. 1430–40
MediumInk, tempera and gold leaf on parchment
DimensionsOverall: 13 1/16 × 8 3/4 in. (33.2 × 22.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Robert Lehman
Object number1943.11
Status
Not on viewThe historiated initial in this leaf commences the text that reads, in translation, “Lavishly, he has given to the poor.” Deriving from Psalm 112, these words relate to an event that led directly to Saint Lawrence’s martyrdom. Pope Sixtus II had appointed Saint Lawrence as archdeacon, entrusting the saint with looking over Church’s treasures. After Sixtus was martyred, however, the prefect ordered Saint Lawrence to turn over the valuables to him. Lawrence asked for three days to do so, during which time he instead distributed the Church’s treasures among the poor. As a result of his actions, Saint Lawrence suffered a fiery martyrdom on a gridiron, as represented in the lurid illumination of this gradual leaf, used on an August 10 feast day for the saint’s martyrdom. The artist, one of the leading book illuminators in Milan, is named for his work in a copy of Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars (Vitae Imperatorum) made for Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan.
Exhibition History
Aspects of Late Medieval Art
- Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH (October 31, 1958 - November 22, 1958 )
The Renaissance Image of Man and the World
- Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH (October 27, 1961 - November 27, 1961 )
Teaching Exhibition
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 3, 1981 - October 4, 1981 )
Books of Revelation: Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts from Oberlin College Collections
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 31, 1995 - April 9, 1995 )
Illuminated Manuscripts from the Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 6, 2007 - June 2, 2007 )
Private Prayer, Public Performance: Religious Books of the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 29, 2013 - June 30, 2013 )
Collections
- European
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early 17th century
ca. 1405
ca. 1649