The Getty Museum inaugurates a new series of affordable publications that introduce the public to the richness of its holdings in illuminated manuscripts. The first in the series features Italian manuscript illumination from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries. This volume showcases full-color reproductions of masterpieces by Niccolo da Bologna, Pisanello, Girolamo da Cremona, Taddeo Crivelli, Giovanni di Paolo, Matteo da Milano, Antonio da Monza, and the Master of Gerona, among a number of Italy's finest illuminators. The selection includes multiple illuminations from such sumptuous volumes as the Montecassino Breviary, the Gualenghi-d'Este Hours, the Missal of the Anti-Pope John XXIII, and the recently discovered Orsini Missal, along with exceptional leaves from the celebrated choirbooks of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence, and from the laudario of the Compagnia di Sant'Agnese, Florence.
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Although the Getty Museum's collection of Italian manuscript illuminations is the youngest institutional collection in the United States, it includes a range of Italian manuscripts that spans more than eight centuries. The Getty's holdings presently consist of forty-four works, dating from the ninth to the sixteenth century, and include entire manuscripts as well as leaves and cuttings.This volume gathers selections from the Getty's collection that highlight the extraordinary achievement of the Italian tradition of illumination. Examples include multiple illuminations from such books as the Montecassino Breviary, the Gualenghi-d'Este Hours, the missal of the antipope John XXIII, and the recently discovered Orsini Missal. Other paintings are such exceptional leaves and cuttings as those from the celebrated choir book of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence and the Laudario of the Company of Sant'Agnese, also in Florence.A wide range of artists is included. Two of the most well-known, Pisanello and Girolamo de Cremona, worked for distinguished patrons at court, while others worked in obscurity and are known today only through their illuminations. One of the finest miniatures in this collection, for example, is credited to an artist known only as the Master of Gerona.
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