Paintings on Parchment: Italian Renaissance Illuminations From the Robert Lehman Collection September 27, 2012

This installation of Italian illuminations from the Robert Lehman Collection, featuring examples by leading masters from the early fourteenth to the early sixteenth century, highlights the achievements of this art form and its close ties to painting during the Italian Renaissance. The majority of the parchment leaves and cuttings, decorated in jewel-toned palettes and gold, are initials that have been excised from choir books. Approaching the scale of small panel paintings, the Florentine and Sienese initials reflect the colossal size of these books, which enabled a large group of clergy to read the text and music at a distance. Two Northern Italian leaves, not created as part of manuscripts but as independent paintings on parchment, also blur the boundaries between the two art forms.