Leaf from an Antiphonary with Historiated Initial (H) with The Nativity (recto)
Unknown Artist
early 1300s
Medium
ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
Dimensions
53 × 38 cm
Classification
Manuscript
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1953.285.a
About this artwork
This enormous initial h illustrates the beginning of the text of the first matins response for Christmas Day: Hodie nobis celorum rex (“On this day the King of Heaven”). The initial is appropriately decorated with a scene of Christ’s nativity. Along with other painters and illuminators, Neri da Rimini established the school of Rimini, characterized by a painting style owing much to the work of Giotto, who he perhaps encountered in Padua.