Initial V: The Children of the World Praising the Lord, cutting from a gradual

From the Getty Museum record

An ornate initial *V* represents an unusual scene identified as the Children of the World Praising the Lord. Introducing the entry to the Mass of Easter Tuesday, it originally belonged to a Christian choir book prepared for the Camaldolese monastic community of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. The complex history of the creation of this manuscript started in 1409, but shortly thereafter the project was abandoned by the premier artist and monk Lorenzo Monaco. The volume was then completed by a group of artists working closely with Fra Angelico, a Dominican monk and painter, in the early 1430s. Chief among them was Zanobi Strozzi, whose highly refined style is reflected in the delicately painted Christ figure in the top left corner of the initial. At some point in the volume’s history, it was cut up for its paintings and dispersed, resulting in individual initials like the one here. In the 18th and 19th centuries such leaves provided collectors with works that were more affordable than Old Master paintings on panel, which fueled the unfortunate practice of breaking up manuscripts for their artistic [value][1]. [1]: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/1095SC