id: 160828 accession number: 1999.135 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1999.135 updated: 2023-03-15 15:46:34.774000 Cutting from a Missal: Initial O with Christ Performing an Exorcism, c. 1520. Matteo da Milano (Italian). Ink, tempera and liquid gold on vellum; each leaf: 7.7 x 6.7 cm (3 1/16 x 2 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 1999.135 title: Cutting from a Missal: Initial O with Christ Performing an Exorcism title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1520 creation date earliest: 1515 creation date latest: 1525 current location: creditline: The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection copyright: --- culture: Italy, Rome, 16th century technique: ink, tempera and liquid gold on vellum department: Medieval Art collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations type: Manuscript find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Matteo da Milano (Italian) - artist --- measurements: Each leaf: 7.7 x 6.7 cm (3 1/16 x 2 5/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations opening date: 1999-12-19T00:00:00 The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA, 19 December 1999 - 27 February 2000, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, cat. 81, illus. p. 83. --- PROVENANCE (all owners are known from shortly after the sacking of the Sistine Chapel sacristy by Napolean's troops in 1798 to the present): date: footnotes: citations: William Young Ottley (1771-1836) [his sale, Sotheby's, London, 11-12 May 1838, lot 50 (one of three miniatures)]; Robert S. Holford (1808-1892); Sir George Holford (1860-1926) [his sale, Sotheby's, London, 12 July 1927, lot 27]; G. Wells; A. R. H. Mann [his sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 April 1961, lot 77]; [Areade Gallery]; Philip Hofer; private collection, New York; Roger Wieck; [Bruce Ferrini, Akron] date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: This initial is probably the O beginning the Introit for the Third Sunday in Lent, Occuli mei semper ad Dominum (My eyes are ever towards the Lord). The Gospel reading from that Sunday tells the story of Christ casting out a demon. The artist's style is easily recognized in the facial features, and in the borders, in which he typically mixed still-life motifs, scattered small red and blue flowers, strawberries, and simulated pearls and jewels. Matteo's life dates are not known. His career probably began in Milan in the 1490s, but his name occurs in the accounts of the d'Este family at Ferrara from 1502 to 1512. The climax of Matteo's career was his activity in Rome, where he was apparently responsible for a number of luxury illuminated liturgical manuscripts. In 1520 he illuminated a missal for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII (1523–34). The initial shown here comes from another missal that he must have illuminated around the same time. This missal was most probably in the Sistine Chapel sacristy when it was sacked by Napoleon's troops in 1798. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 83, cat. no. 81; Reproduced: back cover url: https://archive.org/details/BlackburnIlluminations/page/n95 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1999.135/1999.135_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1999.135/1999.135_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1999.135/1999.135_full.tif