Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci's painting of Madonna and Child, tempera on panel

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (c. 1339 – c. 1399) was an Italian painter and illuminator in Florence. He became a monk and later a prior of the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli where he first started work on illustrations for manuscripts.

Paintings

• Madonna and Child with Sts. John Baptist and Paul (?), circa 1375, tempera on panel, 83.82 × 76.835 cm (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.39.1)^[1]
• Assumption of the Virgin, circa 1365, tempera on panel, 41 × 27 cm (Pinacoteca Vaticana)^[2]
• Madonna and Child, circa 1365–1370, tempera on panel, 49 × 30.5 cm (private collection)^[3][4]

Illuminated manuscripts

Gradual from Santa Maria degli Angeli

Initial "R", gradual from the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli

Gradual from Santa Maria degli Angeli, considered to be Don Silvestro's crowning achievemen, is currently preserved in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence (Codice Corale 2 / Cod. Cor. 2), with twenty detached pages in various collections around the world:^[5]

• folio 15: Saint Stephen Enthroned in an Initial E (private collection, England)^[6]
• folio 18: The Four Evangelists in an Initial I (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, inv. no. M34)^[7]
• folio 23: Saint Silvester in an Initial S (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, NMB 1797)^[8]
• folio 32: Saint Agnes in an Initial M (Library of Geneva)^[9]
• folio 42: The Presentation in the Temple in an Initial S (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England, Marlay Cutting It. 13A)^[10][11]
• folio 49: Saint Scholastica in an Initial V (location unknown)^[12]
• folio 56: Saint Benedict Enthroned with Eight Saints (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, inv. no. M35)^[13]
• folio 60: The Annunciation in an Initial R (British Library, London, Add. MS 35254 C)^[14][15] + Six Bust-Length Prophets (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, NMB 1797)^[15]
• folio 80: Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon in an Initial B (Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg)
• folio 90: Saint Romuald Enthroned with Four Saints in an Initial O (British Library, London, Add. MS 37472, folio 3)^[16][17]
• folio 97: The Birth of Saint John the Baptist (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, inv. no. 2764)^[18][19]
• folio 104: Saint Peter and Paul in an Initial N (private collection, England)
• folio 113: Saint Margaret in an Initial L (private collection, Milan)^[20]
• folio 119: Saints James and Andrew in an Initial M (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, inv. no. F61–14)^[21][22][23]
• folio 134: Saint Lawrence in an Initial C (Walters Art Museum, MS W.416)^[24][25]
• folio 137: The Virgin and Child in an Initial S (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.1012)^[26][27]
• folio 142: The Death and Assumption of the Virgin (British Library, London, Add. MS 37955 A)^[28][29]
• folio 148: The Birth of the Virgin in an Initial G (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 21.168)^[30][31]
• folio 155: The Virgin and Christ in Glory in an Initial G (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1930.105)^[32][33]
• folio 159: Pope Saint Clement in an Initial D (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England, MS 5-1979)^[34]

Notes

1. "Madonna and Child with Sts. John Baptist and Paul (?)". Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
2. "Assumption of the Virgin". Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
3. "Madonna and Child". Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
4. "Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Madonna col Bambino". Sotheby's. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
5. Kanter 1994, pp. 131–154
6. Kanter 1994, p. 132 fig. 45, p. 133, p. 137 n. 4
7. Kanter 1994, p. 132 fig. 46, p. 133
8. Kanter 1994, p. 133 text + fig. 47
9. Kanter 1994, pp. 138–139 text + image
10. "Historiated initial from a Gradual". Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
11. Kanter 1994, pp. 140–141 text + image
12. Kanter 1994, p. 134, p. 138 n. 7
13. Kanter 1994, p. 133 fig. 48, p. 134
14. "Add MS 35254 C". British Library. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
15. Kanter 1994, pp. 141–144 text + images
16. "Additional 37472, f. 3". British Library. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
17. Kanter 1994, p. 144, p. 145 image
18. Kanter 1994, p. 134 text + fig. 49
19. Costambeys 2007, p. 161, p. 163 fig. 2
20. Kanter 1994, p. 135 text + fig. 50
21. "Initial "M" with Saints James and Andrew(?)". Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
22. Kanter 1994, p. 135, p. 136 figs. 51–52
23. Bent 1992, pp. 508–510 text + figs. 1–2
24. "Leaf from Antiphonary". Walters Art Museum. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
25. Kanter 1994, pp. 144–146 text, p. 146 image
26. "Initial S[alve sancta parens] from a Gradual: Madonna and Child". Cleveland Museum of Art. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
27. Kanter 1994, pp. 146–148 text + image
28. "Additional 37955A". British Library. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
29. Kanter 1994, pp. 148–150 text + image
30. "Manuscript Illumination with the Birth of the Virgin in an Initial G, from a Gradual". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
31. Kanter 1994, pp. 150–151 text + image
32. "Initial G[audeamus omnes] from a Gradual: The Court of Heaven". Cleveland Museum of Art. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
33. Kanter 1994, pp. 152–153 text + image
34. Kanter 1994, p. 154 text + image

References

• George R. Bent (1992). "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 (4): 507–523. doi:10.2307/1482625. JSTOR 1482625.
• Marios Costambeys (2007). The Making of the Middle Ages: Liverpool Essays. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781846310683. google books preview
• Laurence B. Kanter (1994). Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870997259. google books preview
• Pope-Hennessy, John & Kanter, Laurence B. (1987). The Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings. New York, Princeton: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press. ISBN 0870994794. (see index; plate 32)

External links

• Prophet in a Historiated Initial "O" from a Gradual by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci