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Unknown, Initial E: Adoration of the Magi, Nuremberg, about 1475-1500. Getty Museum |
The Getty has purchased two late 15th-century initials that are believed to have come from the same manuscript as a German Crucifixion added in 1993. The initials, just short of 4 inches across, were probably part of a missal, a book read during the Catholic mass. The usual focus of a missal was a full-page Crucifixion. The example at the Getty measures 15-1/4 by 9-9/16 in.
The style of all three illuminations suggest a common origin in late 15th-century Nuremberg. The city in the background of the Crucifixion, representing Jerusalem, is based on medieval German cityscapes.
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Unknown, Initial S: The Presentation in the Temple, Nuremberg, about 1475-1500. Getty Museum | |
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| Unknown, The Crucifixion, possibly Nuremberg, about 1475-1500. Getty Museum |
In
a 2021 show at the Morgan Library,
The Crucifixion was attributed to the Pleydenwurff-Wolgemut Workshop. Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wolgemut are best known for creating the woodcut illustrations to the printed
Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. Among the younger artists in their orbit was the teenaged Albrecht Dürer, who apprenticed with Wolgemut.
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| Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wolgemut, View of Nuremberg in Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. |
Comments
Illuminators were the precursors of oil-painting artists. In fact, many of the greatest illuminators became the greatest early oil painters. Just a few whose canvas and panel works make up some of the landmark paintings in Western art history are: Jean Pucelle, Jean Fouquet, and the Limbourg Brothers. The list is very long.
Jan van Eyck’s illuminations are legendary:
https://medium.com/art-stories/jan-van-eycks-illumination-e32045ac0f7d
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The Getty's collection of illuminations is world-famous.