Initial S: The Stoning of Saint Stephen, cutting from an antiphonal

From the Getty Museum record

The spiraling bodies of two fanciful dolphins construct the forms of the letter for this historiated initial *S*, which once introduced the Christian Feast of Saint Stephen (December 26) in a choir book for the Olivetan monastery of Santi Angelo e Niccolò at Villanova Sillaro. The image uses a style modeled after that of Leonardo da Vinci, such as the waving blond locks and lithe elegant pose of the figure at left. The Master B.F. set the martyrdom of Saint Stephen in a tranquil landscape. Above, an angel formed by clouds offers a tiny figure representing the saint’s soul to heaven, his pose mimicking that of the kneeling figure below. Likely removed from its parent manuscript in the early 19thth century, the image is a prime example of the fashion among collectors for cutting Italian medieval illuminations from books so that they could be displayed as if they were independent panel paintings. Two other manuscript cuttings in the Getty collection likely came from the same book, a lavishly decorated [initial *D*][1] and an [initial *E*][2] depicting John the Evangelist. [1]: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/105SYA [2]: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109E6P