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| Lorenzo Monaco, Initial V: Christ Blessing, 1423–1424. All: Getty Museum, gift of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke |
Bay Area collectors T. Robert Burke and Katherine States Burke have donated 38 Italian manuscript illuminations to the Getty Museum. The Burkes' collection of cuttings and detached leaves from the late Gothic and Renaissance periods had been on deposit at Stanford University (and was the subject of a 2020 exhibition there). The gift includes works by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Don Simone Calmoldolese, Lorenzo Monaco, Giovanni di Paolo, and Sano di Pietro. Most of the cuttings are from choir books and are relatively large for illuminations. (Camaldolese's Initial H: The Nativity is nearly 15 inches high.) Voracious 19th century collectors dismembered books for such gold-ground illuminations, prizing them as affordable alternatives to panel paintings. Some of the Burke illuminations can be traced to early scissor-wielding collectors such as William Young Ottley, James Dennistoun, and Thomas Phillipps.
A historiated initial of Christ Blessing becomes the Getty's first work painted by Lorenzo Monaco, best known as one of the last great panel painters in the International Gothic style. It comes from a choir book (gradual) made for the church of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, Florence. The Getty owns another choir book illumination that was designed by Monaco but painted by others a decade later, in a more "modern" early Renaissance style.
Italian illumination has been underrepresented in the Getty collection. The Burke gift almost doubles the number of Italian leaves and cuttings. The Getty plans to feature the Burke collection in a summer 2027 exhibition.
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| Tommaso da Modena, Initial I: Saint Michael Defeating the Devil, about 1348–1350 |
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| Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Initial V: Saint Placidus, about 1385–1390 |
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| Andre di Bartolo, Initial D: Christ in Majesty with the Symbols of the Four Evangelists, about 1390–1400 |
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| Don Simone Camaldolese, Initial H: The Nativity, about 1405–1410 |
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| Attributed to Giovanni di Paolo and Sano di Pietro, Initial F: Saint Michael and the Dragon, about 1446–1450 |
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| Pellegrino di Mariano Rossini, Initial A: The Three Marys at the Tomb, about 1471 |
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