Historiated Initial from an Antiphonal
A historiated initial cut from a 1350 antiphonal, a choir book for liturgical singing, painted by Lippo Vanni and held by the J. Paul Getty Museum. The picture shows a haloed saint in a red robe patterned with gold stars, holding a cross and a palm against a gold ground, framed by blue, red and gold foliate scrollwork. A designer could take the gold-leaf ground, the star-patterned textile and the interlaced blue and red border as models for ornamental framing.
