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Master of the Dominican Effigies [Master of the Lord Lee Polyptych]
( fl c. 1328–50). Italian painter and illuminator. At one time named after a polyptych in the Lee Collection (?1345; U. London, Courtauld Inst. Gals), he is now named after his most unusual panel, Christ and the Virgin Enthroned with Seventeen Dominican Saints (c. 1336; Florence, S Maria Novella). He has been identified with Ristoro di Andrea ( fl c. 1334–64) or some other illuminator associated with S Maria Novella, but this is unproven. It has also been suggested (Boskovits) that the work of another illuminator, the BIADAIOLO MASTER (see above), may constitute an early phase of his career; if correct, this would reinforce his position as the chief heir to PACINO DI BONAGUIDA, with whom he may have trained and certainly collaborated. Like Pacino, his work derives ultimately from the St Cecilia Master and forms part of what has been called the ‘miniaturist tendency’ (Offner), a group of painters often associated with small-scale anecdotal narratives. Like his slightly older contemporaries Jacopo del Casentino and the MASTER OF THE CAPPELLA MEDICI POLYPTYCH (see above), he responded to the ideas of Giotto without entirely understanding them. The work of Giotto’s pupil Bernardo Daddi, however, provided a more accessible source of inspiration for his panels. His most successful work is in manuscripts, where, despite a delightful simplicity, his miniatures reveal strongly controlled designs animated by vivacious figures and lively patterns of colour, for example the Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds on a single leaf from a laudario or vernacular choir-book (Washington, DC, N.G.A., B-15, 393). This artist executed a wide variety of commissions for various Florentine patrons, both lay and religious. These include such service books as an Antiphonary commissioned for S Maria Novella between 1328 and 1334 (Florence, S Maria Novella, Cor. H Inv. No. 1357) and secular works, for example a fine series of miniatures for Dante’s Divine Comedy (c. 1337; Milan, Castello Sforzesco, MS. 1080).
Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family
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