Praying Saint (Moses?) with Christ in a Historiated Initial "L", from a Choirbook

Neri da Rimini · c. 1300

Medium

Manuscript cutting in tempera and gold leaf, with gothica textura inscriptions in light black ink, verso, ruled in red, on parchment

Original size

19.3 × 12.9 cm (7 5/8 × 5 1/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Medieval

This small but luminous cutting from a medieval choirbook contains a world entire — a praying saint, possibly Moses, alongside the figure of Christ, nested within the ornate curve of a gilded initial "L" and painted with the precision and devotion of a manuscript tradition at its peak. Neri da Rimini was one of the leading illuminators working in central Italy around 1300, a period when the Riminese school was absorbing the revolutionary influence of Giotto while retaining its deep roots in Byzantine formalism. His historiated initials are distinguished by their intensity of colour, the delicacy of their gold leaf application, and the way he compressed full narrative meaning into tightly confined decorative space. The gothica textura script that surrounds this image is a reminder that these were functional objects — sung from, handled, worn with use — yet treated with the care of devotional artworks in their own right. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this cutting among a collection that traces the full arc of medieval manuscript production, making it one of the more accessible works from an artist whose output remains scattered across institutions worldwide. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Neri's tempera and gold leaf work into a format made for display, preserving the jewel-like colour and compositional intimacy that make this fragment so quietly arresting.