Unfinished Design for a Choir Book: Initial with Scene of Christ Entering the Temple.

Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni) Italian

Not on view


This unfinished sheet by Lorenzo Monaco, a preeminent artist in early fifteenth-century Florence, was intended for the magnificent choir books of the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Executed on vellum (finely prepared animal skin), the delicate composition is the underdrawing of an illumination that would have been painted in tempera and gold. The foliate design forms a capital "D," the first letter in the text for the sung liturgy of the Mass for Palm Sunday; the opening notes of the music appear at upper right. Within the initial, Lorenzo drew a scene of Christ and the Apostles entering the Temple in Jerusalem. In contrast to the crisply delineated ornamental motifs, the narrative scene is modeled with subtle applications of wash, evoking volume and depth. The page offers a glimpse into Lorenzo’s artistic process at a time when most preparatory designs were completed directly on the surface of the final work.

Unfinished Design for a Choir Book: Initial with Scene of Christ Entering the Temple., Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni) (Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?)), Pen and pale grayish brown ink, brush and pale grayish brown wash (figural scene), pen and pale brown ink, over construction in leadpoint, ruling and compass work (ornamental parts), ruled lines in red ink, notes and words in pen and dark brown ink (musical score), on vellum

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Unfinished Design for a Choir Book: Initial with Scene of Christ Entering the Temple., Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni) (Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?)), Pen and pale grayish brown ink, brush and pale grayish brown wash (figural scene), pen and pale brown ink, over construction in leadpoint, ruling and compass work (ornamental parts), ruled lines in red ink, notes and words in pen and dark brown ink (musical score), on vellum
Unfinished Design for a Choir Book: Initial with Scene of Christ Entering the Temple., Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni) (Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?)), Pen and pale grayish brown ink, brush and pale grayish brown wash (figural scene), pen and pale brown ink, over construction in leadpoint, ruling and compass work (ornamental parts), ruled lines in red ink, notes and words in pen and dark brown ink (musical score), on vellum

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