Historiated Initial (O) Excised from an Antiphonary: The Donor, Gorus Fucci, Kneels before Christ

Unknown artist, c. 1300–1350

Download3400 × 3366 px View on a wall Edit

Medium: Ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
Size: Sheet: 13.4 x 13.4 cm (5 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.)
Culture: Italy, Arezzo(?)
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

This miniature shows Gorus Fucci kneeling before Christ. His clothes characterize him as a member of the wealthy urban noble class. He wears a contemporary coiffe, a leather headgear, while his hat lies before him. The inscription translates as “Gorus Fucci had this work of a book made.” This manuscript was probably written shortly before the great plague and may have been donated to an ecclesiastical foundation. Pious foundations did not necessarily decline in the wake of the plague: new urban elites from outside emerged as benefactors, primarily focused on social institutions.