SIMONE CAMALDOLESE, Don
(active 1378-1405 in Florence)

The Breslauer Epiphany

1390s
Tempera and gold on parchment, 592 x 415 mm
Bernard H. Breslauer, New York

The initial E encloses the Adoration of the Magi. The blue initial, lined with yellow and decorated with orange, green, pink, gray, and blue foliage, is set against a tooled gold ground bordered by a ruled yellow-and-pink painted frame. The foliate decoration extends the full height of the page along its left margin and its full width along the top and bottom. A comparison of the scene of the Adoration of the Magi on this page with four other examples of the same subject painted by Don Simone suggests that the design, though not the execution, of the Breslauer illumination must be attributed to Don Simone. The execution is by an unknown artist called after this page the Master of the Breslauer Epiphany.