Cleveland Museum of Art

The Caporali Missal

Giapeco Caporali

Date

1469

Medium

Ink, tempera and gold on vellum; 400 folios

Culture

Italy, Perugia

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Called a missal, this manuscript served as a liturgical service book used by the priest at the altar during Mass. According to a colophon, an inscription on folio 400, the missal was made for the Franciscan church of San Francesco in Montone, near Perugia in the region of Umbria, in 1469. It was illuminated by Bartolomeo and Giapeco Caporali, two artist brothers who collaborated on the page decorations. The missal is opened here to the volume’s masterpiece, a two-page deluxe opening to the Canon of the Mass with a Calvary scene. The Canon introduces the most solemn part of the Mass during which the priest elevates and consecrates the Eucharistic bread and wine. Saint Francis kneels at the foot of the cross, attesting to the missal’s Franciscan use and affiliation. Bartolomeo Caporali and his brother Giapeco shared a house and a workshop in Perugia.

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