Saint Gregory Writing, Twelfth Century Miniature, Antique Print, 1849

A mitred figure seated on a cushioned bench with an open book across his knees, drawn in strong outline against a diapered gold ground and framed by a wide band of green and blue ornament. The sheet is lettered as a miniature from the Epistles of Saint Gregory, late twelfth century, in the Bibliotheque nationale de Paris. The robe is modeled in white hatching over red, the technique a twelfth century painter used to suggest the stiffness of silk.

The sheet comes from Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, the great illustrated survey of medieval and Renaissance life edited by Paul Lacroix and Ferdinand Sere and published in Paris from the Administration at 5 rue du Pont-de-Lodi. This is Tome Second, dated 1849 on its own title page. The colored drawings were made by A. Rivaud and his colleagues and printed in chromolithography by the Paris house of Lemercier, then the finest color printer in Europe.

A seated author with his book is the most useful of all medieval images for a study or a working library, and this one is large, calm and well balanced. The green and gold are easy colors to place. It hangs as happily alone as beside any of the other single figure miniatures in the volume.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top left corners.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.