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Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Flanders, c.1490]
175 x 120mm. 162 leaves: 19(vii an inserted singleton with miniature), 29(iv an inserted singleton with miniature), 39(vi an inserted singlton with miniature), 48, 59(vi an inserted singleton with miniature), 68, 79(iv an inserted singleton with miniature), 88, 99(vii an inserted singleton with miniature), 104, 117(of 7), 128, 139(viii an inserted singleton with miniature), 14-178, 187(of 7), 199(of 9), 208(i an inserted singleton with miniature, final blank cancelled), likely lacking a Calendar and six or seven further inserted leaves with miniatures, otherwise text complete; rubrics in red, 17 lines in brown ink in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and 18 horizontals, top and bottom across margins, ruled in pink, text justification: 94 x 60mm, one-line initials alternately of blue and burnished gold with penwork flourishing of red and black respectively, two-line initials of burnished gold against grounds of pink and blue patterned with white and with hair-line tendrils with golden leaves and trilobe flowers of pink or blue into the margins, EIGHT FULL-PAGE MINIATURES SURROUNDED BY AND FACING FULL-PAGE BORDERS, mostly with sprays of flowers scattered against yellow grounds and including insects, birds or animals, SEVEN FURTHER FULL-PAGE BORDERS of the same type, TWELVE SMALL MINIATURES WITH PANEL BORDERS, gilt edges (minor surface rubbing affecting a few borders and the face of the seated Evangelist in the Pentecost miniature, slight thumbing to blank margins). Eighteenth-century red velvet (rubbed and splitting to lower joint). Modern red morocco clam-shell case.
PROVENANCE:
In spite of the high quality of the illumination the manuscript does not appear to have been a special commission and there is no indication of early ownership. The Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead are for the liturgical use of Rome and prayers are in the masculine form. The only marks of later ownership are the ink inscription, in a 19th-century hand, Cat....Droit Canon. upside-down at the foot of the lower paste-down and modern dealer's notes in French on the upper paste-down.
CONTENT:
Hours of the Cross ff.1-6v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.8-12; Mass of the Virgin followed by Gospel Extracts ff.14-24v; Office of the Virgin, use of Rome ff.26-89: matins f.26, lauds f.42, prime f.52, terce f.57, sext f.61, none f.65, vespers f.69, compline f.77, variants for Advent f.82; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.90-104v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome ff. 106-145v; Suffrages to the Trinity, St Michael, St John the Baptist, St Christopher, St Sebastian, St Anthony Abbot, St Nicholas, St Francis, St Mary Magdalene, St Catherine, St Barbara and All Saints ff.146-154; Prayers to the Virgin, Obsecro te and O Intemerata ff. 156-161v.
ILLUMINATION:
Most of the full-page miniatures are the work of an exceptional illuminator who marries the delicacy and precision of his technique with a thoughtful attention to detail in both narrative and setting. There is an unusual quality of emotional engagement and intensity in his protagonists. This is particularly evident, appropriately, in the scenes of divine manifestation, whether the neurotic distraction of some of the Apostles in Pentecost or the startled shepherds at the appearance of the angels. The hooded mourner standing and contemplating the freshly dug grave in the burial scene is no less forceful.
Some debt to illuminators active in the 1470s is evident in these compositions -- the night-time Annunciation to the shepherds goes back at least to the Master of the First Prayer Book of Maximilian in the London Hours of William Lord Hastings (BL, Add.Ms 54782) and the Lamentation recalls the Vienna master of Mary of Burgundy in the Vienna Hours (ÖNB, Ms.1857). This indicates a date no later than around 1490 for the present manuscript, a suggestion supported by the conservative style of the subsidiary decoration, particularly the two-line initials and hairline tendril part-borders that spring from them.
The style of the finest full-page miniatures shows some relationship to the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook in their animation and anecdote but modified by the polish and elegance of the finest work of the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500. It is to this latter Master and his workshop that two of the full-page miniatures (the Visitation and the Massacre of the Innocents) and all of the smaller miniatures can be attributed.
The borders too are closely comparable with those found in the finest of the Prayer Books Master's manuscripts. For example, the green ground with growing irises joined by flower-sprays and insects that is opposite the Massacre of the Innocents in the present manuscript is a similar composition to the border around the most famous of the Prayer Books Master's miniatures, The Dance of Sir Mirth in the Roman de la Rose in London (Harley Ms 4425). It has been pointed out that the Prayer Books Master knew the work of the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book: Illuminating the Renaissance, the Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, eds T. Kren and S. McKendrick, 2003, p.394. It seems likely that the unknown illuminator who painted the delightful and accomplished full-page miniatures of the present manuscript had developed in the same context and absorbed the same influences as the Prayer Books Master himself.
The subjects of the full-page miniatures are as follows:
f.7v Pentecost, with the disciples ranged over a domestic interior, mostly looking up at the dove, the Virgin seated at centre, a book in her lap; surrounding and facing borders with strawberries, columbines, knotweed and veronicas with flies, a sheep and a cat.
f.13v Virgo lactans with music-making angels, with the Virgin and Child seated in a landscape, a large house in the middle-ground; the surrounding and facing borders with veronicas, pansies, strawberry sprays and pink acanthus with a snail, a fly, butterflies and a rabbit and a border miniature of a priest and man at communion.
f.25v Annunciation, set in a detailed domestic interior, the surrounding and facing borders with a pot and sprays of carnations, veronicas, flies and butterflies and a man-faced monkey.
f.41v Visitation, the Virgin and Elizabeth meet in front of a river, a man on a bridge in the middle ground and a complex of domestic buildings behind them; surrounding and facing borders with acanthus sprays, birds, strawberries and pansies.
f.56v Annunciation to the shepherds, a nocturnal scene with two startled shepherds and their dog looking up at the pink-robed angel in a mandorla in the sky above, in the background further shepherds and their flock; the surrounding and facing borders with sprays of flowers, fruit and insects.
f.76v Massacre of the Innocents, a woman kneeling as a soldier stabs her infant in the foreground, two women fleeing into a large house, a further group of struggling mothers and soldiers on the hillside behind; the surrounding and facing borders with sprays of flowers and insects.
f.105v Funeral and burial service, the priest and mourners stand around the catafalque in front of the altar inside a large church, in the foreground a gravedigger stands in the grave he is digging in the pavement of the choir; surrounding and facing borders with flowers and insects, skulls, scrolls and a man ringing handbells.
f.155v Lamentation with Nicodemus supporting the body of Christ and the Evangelist holding the Virgin, Joseph of Arimathea looking on, Calvary in the background and the towers of Jerusalem beyond; surrounding and facing bortders with flower sprays, a hare, pig, dog, grotesques, birds and insects.
Further full-page borders with sprays of fruit and flowers interspersed with birds, insects and, occasionally, grotesques are found on folios 1, 52, 61, 65, 69, 82 and 90. Those on folios 65 and 82 have divided coloured grounds, that on folio 1 includes a squirrel and an angel with the Instruments of the Passion and that on folio 90 a donkey in rear-view.
The small miniatures with panel borders by the Master of the Prayerbooks of around 1500 and his workshop are on folios 146, 146v, 147, 147v, 148, 149v, 150, 150v, 151, 152, 153, 153v.
[Flanders, c.1490]
175 x 120mm. 162 leaves: 1
PROVENANCE:
In spite of the high quality of the illumination the manuscript does not appear to have been a special commission and there is no indication of early ownership. The Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead are for the liturgical use of Rome and prayers are in the masculine form. The only marks of later ownership are the ink inscription, in a 19th-century hand, Cat....Droit Canon. upside-down at the foot of the lower paste-down and modern dealer's notes in French on the upper paste-down.
CONTENT:
Hours of the Cross ff.1-6v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.8-12; Mass of the Virgin followed by Gospel Extracts ff.14-24v; Office of the Virgin, use of Rome ff.26-89: matins f.26, lauds f.42, prime f.52, terce f.57, sext f.61, none f.65, vespers f.69, compline f.77, variants for Advent f.82; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.90-104v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome ff. 106-145v; Suffrages to the Trinity, St Michael, St John the Baptist, St Christopher, St Sebastian, St Anthony Abbot, St Nicholas, St Francis, St Mary Magdalene, St Catherine, St Barbara and All Saints ff.146-154; Prayers to the Virgin, Obsecro te and O Intemerata ff. 156-161v.
ILLUMINATION:
Most of the full-page miniatures are the work of an exceptional illuminator who marries the delicacy and precision of his technique with a thoughtful attention to detail in both narrative and setting. There is an unusual quality of emotional engagement and intensity in his protagonists. This is particularly evident, appropriately, in the scenes of divine manifestation, whether the neurotic distraction of some of the Apostles in Pentecost or the startled shepherds at the appearance of the angels. The hooded mourner standing and contemplating the freshly dug grave in the burial scene is no less forceful.
Some debt to illuminators active in the 1470s is evident in these compositions -- the night-time Annunciation to the shepherds goes back at least to the Master of the First Prayer Book of Maximilian in the London Hours of William Lord Hastings (BL, Add.Ms 54782) and the Lamentation recalls the Vienna master of Mary of Burgundy in the Vienna Hours (ÖNB, Ms.1857). This indicates a date no later than around 1490 for the present manuscript, a suggestion supported by the conservative style of the subsidiary decoration, particularly the two-line initials and hairline tendril part-borders that spring from them.
The style of the finest full-page miniatures shows some relationship to the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook in their animation and anecdote but modified by the polish and elegance of the finest work of the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500. It is to this latter Master and his workshop that two of the full-page miniatures (the Visitation and the Massacre of the Innocents) and all of the smaller miniatures can be attributed.
The borders too are closely comparable with those found in the finest of the Prayer Books Master's manuscripts. For example, the green ground with growing irises joined by flower-sprays and insects that is opposite the Massacre of the Innocents in the present manuscript is a similar composition to the border around the most famous of the Prayer Books Master's miniatures, The Dance of Sir Mirth in the Roman de la Rose in London (Harley Ms 4425). It has been pointed out that the Prayer Books Master knew the work of the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book: Illuminating the Renaissance, the Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, eds T. Kren and S. McKendrick, 2003, p.394. It seems likely that the unknown illuminator who painted the delightful and accomplished full-page miniatures of the present manuscript had developed in the same context and absorbed the same influences as the Prayer Books Master himself.
The subjects of the full-page miniatures are as follows:
f.7v Pentecost, with the disciples ranged over a domestic interior, mostly looking up at the dove, the Virgin seated at centre, a book in her lap; surrounding and facing borders with strawberries, columbines, knotweed and veronicas with flies, a sheep and a cat.
f.13v Virgo lactans with music-making angels, with the Virgin and Child seated in a landscape, a large house in the middle-ground; the surrounding and facing borders with veronicas, pansies, strawberry sprays and pink acanthus with a snail, a fly, butterflies and a rabbit and a border miniature of a priest and man at communion.
f.25v Annunciation, set in a detailed domestic interior, the surrounding and facing borders with a pot and sprays of carnations, veronicas, flies and butterflies and a man-faced monkey.
f.41v Visitation, the Virgin and Elizabeth meet in front of a river, a man on a bridge in the middle ground and a complex of domestic buildings behind them; surrounding and facing borders with acanthus sprays, birds, strawberries and pansies.
f.56v Annunciation to the shepherds, a nocturnal scene with two startled shepherds and their dog looking up at the pink-robed angel in a mandorla in the sky above, in the background further shepherds and their flock; the surrounding and facing borders with sprays of flowers, fruit and insects.
f.76v Massacre of the Innocents, a woman kneeling as a soldier stabs her infant in the foreground, two women fleeing into a large house, a further group of struggling mothers and soldiers on the hillside behind; the surrounding and facing borders with sprays of flowers and insects.
f.105v Funeral and burial service, the priest and mourners stand around the catafalque in front of the altar inside a large church, in the foreground a gravedigger stands in the grave he is digging in the pavement of the choir; surrounding and facing borders with flowers and insects, skulls, scrolls and a man ringing handbells.
f.155v Lamentation with Nicodemus supporting the body of Christ and the Evangelist holding the Virgin, Joseph of Arimathea looking on, Calvary in the background and the towers of Jerusalem beyond; surrounding and facing bortders with flower sprays, a hare, pig, dog, grotesques, birds and insects.
Further full-page borders with sprays of fruit and flowers interspersed with birds, insects and, occasionally, grotesques are found on folios 1, 52, 61, 65, 69, 82 and 90. Those on folios 65 and 82 have divided coloured grounds, that on folio 1 includes a squirrel and an angel with the Instruments of the Passion and that on folio 90 a donkey in rear-view.
The small miniatures with panel borders by the Master of the Prayerbooks of around 1500 and his workshop are on folios 146, 146v, 147, 147v, 148, 149v, 150, 150v, 151, 152, 153, 153v.
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Sale room notice
Please note that the miniatures in this manuscript have been attributed by Professor James Marrow to the Master of the Wodhull-Harberton Hours.