GHERARDO DI GIOVANNI DI MINIATO, called GHERARDO DEL FORA
(Florentine, 1445–1497)
 

King David

Vellum
20 ¾ x 16 inches (53 x 40.7 cm)

Historiated initial “E” forming the beginning of “Exultate” on a leaf from the beginning of the 80th Psalm in a Choir Psalter, in Latin [Italy (Florence), c.1480-90]

and an inner border for the first Nocturne at Matins on Fridays, 14 lines,

The meticulously drawn figure of King David raising his hands in praise is by Gherardo di Giovanni di Miniato, called Gherardo del Fora (Fig. 1). Gherhardo and his brother  Monte di Giovanni were celebrated artists and miniaturists who operated a joint workshop in Florence in the last quarter of the 15th century. In some manuscripts the two divided their efforts, with Gherardo executing the illustration and Monte the decoration. While our illumination was previously thought to be a collaborative effort by the brothers, Dr. Christopher Daly has recently confirmed Gherardo di Giovanni di Miniato’s sole authorship of the work.

Like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Gherardo and Monte were students of the master painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, and they grew to dominate the artistic output of Florence in the second half of the 15th and early 16th centuries. Alongside Attavante di Attavanti and Francesco Antonio del Cherico, the brothers were the most significant miniaturists in Florence during the Renaissance. Gherardo was a humanist in his own right, a lover of music, learned in Latin literature and an intimate friend of Leonardo da Vinci.

The present sheet belonged to a known Choir Psalter, long ago dispersed, that has traditionally been attributed to Gherardo and Monte. Other leaves can be identified with some confidence: Psalm 1, David kneeling before God, in a landscape (Fig. 2);[i] Psalm 38, David raising his hands;[ii] Psalm 52, The Fool (sold, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 2014, lot 36; Psalm 68, Man of Sorrows (Marczell de Nemes, Budapest, collection, sold by Mensing in Amsterdam, 13 November 1928, lot 106); Psalm 80, the present leaf; and Psalm 97, Monks Singing (sold, Sotheby’s, London, 18 June 2002, lot 15). Only Psalms 26 and 109 are unidentified, but one of them may be the leaf described in the Mettler sale by Muller, Amsterdam, 22 November 1929, lot 87.

[i] P. Wescher, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Miniaturen, 1931, p. 99.

[ii] Baer, Lagerkatalog 750, 1930, no. 795.