Gradual from Santa Maria degli Angeli (Folio 159)
by GHERARDUCCI, Don Silvestro dei, Tempera and gold on parchment, 169 x 167 mm
Among the various choir books that Don Silvestro illuminated for his monastery, Santa Maria degli Angeli, one (Cod. Cor. 2, now in the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence) clearly stands out for its high artistic quality. As were most of the Santa Maria degli Angeli choir books which entered the Biblioteca Laurenziana, it was mutilated in the Napoleonic period. Twenty pages - many of them the most important and most beautiful - were cut from this gradual and found their way into various collections. There are thirty-eight present and missing illuminations in the codex on which a reconstruction can be based.
The cutting from folio 159 depicts Pope St Clement in an initial D. This initial begins the introit to the Mass for the feast of St Clement (November 23). His eyes slightly turned to the left and his right hand somewhat raised, the frontal three-quarter-length figure of Pope Clement addresses the beholder. In his left hand he holds a book and gently lifts up his stole. Don Silvestro draws on types established by Simone Martini and his followers, for instance the holy popes in Simone’s Pisa altarpiece.