The Breslau Psalter

The Associate of the Master of Giovanni da Gaibana

Artists

Ten of the eleven images often attributed to the Gaibana Master are closely related in style and technique to the Beatus initial (fol. 23v), but display a different choice of pigments. The differences, most obvious in the faces and drapery, suggest the involvement of a close Associate who emulated the Gaibana Master’s compositions, style and painting technique, but did not share his pigments. Unlike the Gaibana Master who chose earth pigments, his Associate made prolific use of azurite in flesh tones and beards, as well as in blue areas and green mixtures. The Associate was responsible for the full-page miniature on fol. 49v, the historiated initial for Psalm 38 (fol. 51r), and eight small miniatures (fols. 41r, 47v, 52r, 52v, 53r, 54r (two images), and probably 55r).

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Detail of Christ’s face under magnification (7.5x).

This depiction of Christ announcing his pending death to the Apostles is the only full-page miniature painted by the Gaibana Master’s Associate. It shows the artist’s intimate familiarity with his master’s iconographic compositions, as it resembles the miniature for the Common of Saints painted by the Gaibana Master in the Paduan Epistolary.