Matteo da Milano
Initial A: King David, Rome, c. 1520
missal, Leaf: 33.6 x 23.4 cm (13 1/4 x 9 3/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 87, fols. 52v-53, 2004.65
King David appears in an initial introducing a psalm that begins, "Ad te levavi" (I lift up my soul to you). The artist was one of the most important Italian illuminators of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and specialized in manuscripts for powerful noble patrons. This missal features the coat of arms of the influential Orsini family of Rome and contains images of little bears (orsini in Italian) who flank the coat of arms in the border at the left.