TWO ILLUMINATED INITIALS Saint Dominic, historiated initial O and Saint Lawrence, historiated initial L, fragments of a Dominican gradual or antiphonary. Italy, Lombardy, Cremona, entourage of Baldassare Coldiradi, late 15th century 11.5 x 11.5 cm (on view, framed) Expert : Roch de Coligny Commentary: Saint Dominic in mid-body stands out in profile against a blue background decorated with crosses and small white dots. His halo is not painted in perspective. The saint is holding a book in his right hand and a sceptre in his left. The initial is decorated and bordered with small circles, a motif repeated in the saint's halo. This motif is common in Lombard illumination and can be found, for example, in the work of a contemporary, Frère Nebridio, a Dominican active in Cremona around 1460-1490 (S. Bandera, "Persistance tardogotiche a Cremona: Frate Nebridio e altri episodi", Florence, separate issue of Paragone, N. 323, February, 1977, pl. 8, 10a and b, 13). However, the background can be compared with a psalter preserved in Harward, Houghton Library Northon 2, attributed to Baldassare Coldiradi (A. Daneu Lattanzi, "Un psalterio inedita di Baldassare Coldiradi e qualche altra miniatura cremonese della la fine del Quattrocento: Ludovica de Gazis e "il maestro della Mosca"", in Storia dell'arte in onore di Roberto Salvini, Florence, 1984, pp. 335-346, fig. 4a, birds facing each other). The halo is not in perspective either. This artist is known for his choir books for the Cremona chapter, written by Brother Gadio and documented in 1482 as an antiphonary and 1484 as an antiphonal psalter (M. Bollati, ed. Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italani, Milan, 2004, pp. 168-171). Saint Lawrence is holding the grill of his martyrdom and the martyr's palm. He is seen from 3/4 face on a blue background decorated with lozenges and small white dots. He is wearing a red dalmatic with a green collar. The face is well modelled in brown ochre, the eyes stretched out in a Byzantine style attested to in the work of Baldassare Coldiradi of Medioleno. Compared to Saint Dominic, Saint Lawrence has small hands and eyes, like Saint Agatha in the fragments preserved at the BnF in Paris (Ad 132 @Reserve vol. II 16, 17, 26, M. Marubbi, "Minature cremonesi al Cabinet des estampes della Bibliothéque nationale de France", Studi in onore di Francesca Flores d'Arçais, 2010, p. 101-106, fig. 8, s. Paul on the other hand has large hands, fig. There is also a Ferrarese influence in this artist. The treatment of the carmine pink initial with volutes can be seen in the gradual of the convent of s. Augustin of Bergamo and in the Cremona manuscript, Civic Museum Cod. VI, ch. 55v, f. 126v, Christ bearing his cross (Daneu Lattanzi, fig. 9). Baldassare's collaborators include the Master of the Gialleni collection (in Libri e documenti, 49-50, 2023-2024, pp. 133-145) and the Master of the Mare Magnum (I Codici miniati e decorati delle Biblioteca Statale di Cremona, cat. expo. Cremona, 2021, cat. 9, @13, 18, 21, 32). It should also be noted that the artist commissioned by Gian Francesco Meli in 1491 was paid in 1494 for the miniature frontispiece of the gradual for St. Dominic. Domenico. Could our fragments have come from this lost gradual?