Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History


    • Assumption of the Virgin in an Initial A: Cutting from an Antiphonary, ca. 1470–80
    Cosimo Tura (Italian, ca. 1430–1495)
    Tempera and gold leaf on parchment

    17 3/8 x 12 in. (44 x 30.5 cm)
    Rogers Fund, 1911 (11.50.1)

    This miniature was excised from a lost series of choirbooks decorated by Cosimo Tura for an unidentified Franciscan convent in Ferrara. The initial A introduces one of the antiphons for the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin (August 15): "Assumpta est Maria in celum: gaudent angeli" (Mary has been taken up into heaven! The Angels are rejoicing). This text is illustrated by the twelve apostles kneeling in a landscape around the Virgin's tomb, their heads uplifted in contemplation of a celestial vision of her seated next to Christ. Shaping the initial itself is the fantastically rendered body of a dragon.

    This fragment and nine other related cuttings, from the same series of choirbooks, were probably executed by Cosimo Tura on behalf of the ruling Este family for one of the churches under their patronage.

    This work of art also appears on Connections: Performance, Intention

    Related


    This work has been published in the Museum's Bulletin or Journal. These articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship.
  • Frazer, Margaret English. "Medieval Church Treasuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 43, no. 3 (Winter, 1985–86).
    JSTOR | PDF | Supplemental PDFs
    • "Director's Note" PDF
    • "Introduction" PDF
  • "Exhibitions [at MMA, 1972]." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 30, no. 5 (Apri–May, 1972).
    JSTOR | PDF | Supplemental PDFs
    • "35 Photographs by Edward Weston" PDF
    • "Calligraphy West of China" PDF
    • "A Famous Persian Manuscript: The Subject of an Exhibition, a Book, and a Film" PDF
    • "Gerard David: Flander's Last Medieval Master" PDF
    • "Italy, Too Late to Be Saved?" PDF
    • "Japanese Screens" PDF
    • "Jean Arp" PDF
    • "Selected Manuscript Paintings from the Medieval Collection" PDF
    • "The Shah-Nameh Film" PDF
    • "Two American Wing Exhibitions" PDF
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    Assumption of the Virgin in an Initial A: Cutting from an Antiphonary, ca. 1470–80
    Cosimo Tura (Italian, ca. 1430–1495)
    Tempera and gold leaf on parchment

    17 3/8 x 12 in. (44 x 30.5 cm)
    Rogers Fund, 1911 (11.50.1)


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