1434
vellum
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Initial D is a 1434 by Master of the Cypresses, a Renaissance work, depicting Letter, held at National Gallery of Art.
This page shows a tiny, single letter "D." It's written in gold ink on purple vellum. Tiny letters cluster around it like flies. The "D" looks stretched, as if the artist squeezed it sideways. The gold ink catches the light like a coin in sunlight. The purple background feels deep, like a dark church window. See how the "D" bends? That trick is called *sfumato* — soft edges that blur like smoke. If you like this, check out Jan van Eyck's work at the same museum.
The Master of the Cypresses is a notname invented by the art historian Diego Angulo Íñiguez in 1928 for a painter and manuscript illuminator working in Seville around the years 1420–1440.
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