Cleveland Museum of Art

Historiated Initial (O) Excised from an Antiphonary: The Donor, Gorus Fucci, Kneels before Christ

Date

c. 1300–1350

Medium

ink, tempera, and gold on parchment

Culture

Italy, Arezzo(?)

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This miniature shows Gorus Fucci kneeling before Christ. His clothes characterize him as a member of the wealthy urban noble class. He wears a contemporary coiffe, a leather headgear, while his hat lies before him. The inscription translates as “Gorus Fucci had this work of a book made.” This manuscript was probably written shortly before the great plague and may have been donated to an ecclesiastical foundation. Pious foundations did not necessarily decline in the wake of the plague: new urban elites from outside emerged as benefactors, primarily focused on social institutions. The gentleman here has respectfully taken off his hat as he kneels before Christ. On his head remains a coif, a close- fitting cap worn by both men and women beneath hats as well as on its own.

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