Lot Essay
Slightly earlier eg - showing sorrowful stance of Virgin with raised hands, Missal, Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya -- Arte Catalan 187.
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Details
CRUCIFIXION, full-page Canon miniature on a leaf from a Missal, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Catalonia, c.1370s]
327 x 233mm. The miniature (210 x 160mm) on the recto; on the verso, 34 lines in black ink in a round gothic bookhand with large puzzle initial in blue and red elaborately flourished in red, a prefatory prayer added to the upper margin, (small pigment losses to Virgin's mantle and John's robe, a larger loss to his mantle, a few tiny losses to gold ground, marginal crease just touching border, rubbing of gold to medallions and a few leaves).
This large, arresting miniature with its beautifully drawn, expressive and sorrowful figures opened the Canon of the Mass, beginning 'Te igitur clementissime patrum' on the verso of the leaf. Stylistic elements of both the script and the penwork initial, with its flamboyant flourishing, are found in Catalan manuscripts (see, for example, BnF Espagnol 353, f.232). The miniature's composition and the treatment of figures and drapery, together with its French-style border of ivy-leaf sprays and corner medallions is comparable with a Crucifixion on f.92v of a Missal for Catalan use, perhaps made for Sant Pere de Roda (Barcelona, A.C.A, Sant Cugat 29). This and another Missal (Misal de Juan Melec, Barcelona, A.C.A., Sant Cugat 14) have been associated with manuscripts copied and illuminated for use by Juan Fernandez de Heredia (c.1310-1396), a learned patron of historiography and translation and Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, who moved to Avignon in 1382 (see Pedro Bohigas, La Ilustracíon y la decoracíon del libro manuscrito en Cataluña, Barcelona, 1965-7, 2 vols, pp.207-212).
[Catalonia, c.1370s]
327 x 233mm. The miniature (210 x 160mm) on the recto; on the verso, 34 lines in black ink in a round gothic bookhand with large puzzle initial in blue and red elaborately flourished in red, a prefatory prayer added to the upper margin, (small pigment losses to Virgin's mantle and John's robe, a larger loss to his mantle, a few tiny losses to gold ground, marginal crease just touching border, rubbing of gold to medallions and a few leaves).
This large, arresting miniature with its beautifully drawn, expressive and sorrowful figures opened the Canon of the Mass, beginning 'Te igitur clementissime patrum' on the verso of the leaf. Stylistic elements of both the script and the penwork initial, with its flamboyant flourishing, are found in Catalan manuscripts (see, for example, BnF Espagnol 353, f.232). The miniature's composition and the treatment of figures and drapery, together with its French-style border of ivy-leaf sprays and corner medallions is comparable with a Crucifixion on f.92v of a Missal for Catalan use, perhaps made for Sant Pere de Roda (Barcelona, A.C.A, Sant Cugat 29). This and another Missal (Misal de Juan Melec, Barcelona, A.C.A., Sant Cugat 14) have been associated with manuscripts copied and illuminated for use by Juan Fernandez de Heredia (c.1310-1396), a learned patron of historiography and translation and Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, who moved to Avignon in 1382 (see Pedro Bohigas, La Ilustracíon y la decoracíon del libro manuscrito en Cataluña, Barcelona, 1965-7, 2 vols, pp.207-212).
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Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
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