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Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Utrecht, in Dutch, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Leiden, c.1485]
200 x 130mm. i + 133 + i: 18, 24, 37 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 4-66, 710, 87 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 96, 108 (of 8, i an inserted singleton and final blank cancelled), 116, 124, 139 (of 8, i an inserted singleton), 146, 152, 167 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 176, 187 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 19-208, 212, COMPLETE. 27 pages with three-line illuminated initials and a panel border of spikey acanthus, ballflowers and golden disks and including a bird, beast or drollery, one page with a three-sided border of similar type, TWO LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES above four lines of text and SIX FULL-PAGE MINIATURES surrounded by full borders and the facing text page with a large illuminated or historiated initial and a three-sided border with drolleries (darkening of lower margin at ff.13v-14). 17th-century red morocco gilt, red morocco box.
PROVENANCE:
The Calendar is for the use of Utrecht with St. Jeroen in red typical of the County of Holland. An origin in South Holland, probably Leiden, is indicated by the miniatures and borders by the Masters of Hugo Jansz. van Woerden and the penwork flourished initials -- Jean-Baptiste Verdussen III (1698-1773), Alderman of Antwerp, member of the Académie impériale et royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles, writer of history, and bibliophile: his bookplate with a variant of the emblem of the family press on the inside upper cover; his posthumous sale in 1776 -- Henry-Auguste Brölemann (1775-1869) and his son Arthur (1826-1904): bookplate and blue-edged paper label 'A.48' inside upper cover -- by descent to Madame Etienne Mallet, Brölemann sale, Sotheby's, London, May 5, 1926, lot 70 -- Colonel David McCandless McKell (1881-1962) -- Acquired from Bernard M. Rosenthal, 1983.
CONTENT:
Calendar, use of Utrecht, ff.1-12v; Hours of the Virgin, in the compilation of Geert Grote ff.14-40v; Suffrages ff.41-47v; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.49-60v; Long Hours of the Cross ff.62-78v; Hours of the Eternal Wisdom ff.80-95v; Short Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.97-108v; Office of the Dead ff.110-132v.
ILLUMINATION:
A STRIKING EXAMPLE OF LATE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION BY THE MASTERS OF HUGO JANSZ. VAN WOERDEN. The Masters were named from perceived similarities between their work and the woodcut illustrations in books published by Hugo Jansz. van Woerden, who settled in Leiden in 1494. Their relationship to the woodcuts remains unclear: they were already active in the 1480s, most probably in Leiden, as borne out by the typically Leiden penwork flourishing in this manuscript, which is datable among their earlier works. The Masters are known for their bold simplified compositions with angular, elongated figures; their emphasis on flat shapes, pattern and outline transformed their borrowings from panel paintings and encouraged, or was encouraged by, their extensive borrowings from prints. Delightful features of this group are the exuberant borders of intertwined blue acanthus, flecked with drops of liquid gold and brightly colored flowers and inhabited by birds, animals and drolleries. The Masters often used fairly thin washes of paint -- akin to those used by print colorists--so that the strong, more opaque colors of the present volume are an especially attractive characteristic. It was one of the two manuscripts chosen from the twenty or so surviving to exemplify the Masters' work in the 1989-1990 exhibition The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting (catalogue no. 105).
The Vershbow manuscript is closely linked to two other Book of Hours within the group, which share the same 'blue tendril' borders of especially narrow, sinuous acanthus: one now in The Hague (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 132 G 38), the other in Berlin (Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Ms. Germ. qu. 18). In all three, the miniatures of the Office of the Dead follow the same pattern, although that in the present lot is more ambitious in its drawing of objects in space. It and the Berlin Hours contain remarkably similar composition of St. Roch and of the figures at Pentecost. The shared patterns drew on a wide range of sources: James Marrow noted that the Vershbow Trinity derives from the much imitated design originated by Robert Campin (the Master of Flémalle), preserved in a panel in St. Petersburg; the Nativity miniature derives from an engraving by Martin Schongauer; the representation of St. Anne with the Virgin and Child takes its inspiration from an engraving of the same subject by the Master IAM of Zwolle, active in the Netherlands c.1470-1490; the Pentecost miniature draws on the blockbook Biblia Pauperum, probably designed in the Netherlands c.1460.
From their eclectic borrowings, the Masters of Hugo Jansz. van Woerden forged a highly individual style that continues to appeal for its direct clarity and charm.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
The Nativity f.13v; St. Anne with the Virgin and Child f.41; St. Roch indicating his sore to the angel Raphael f.46; The Adoration of the Magi f.48v; The Crucifixion f.61v; The Trinity f.79v; Pentecost f.96v; Mass of the Dead f.109v
[Leiden, c.1485]
200 x 130mm. i + 133 + i: 18, 24, 37 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 4-66, 710, 87 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 96, 108 (of 8, i an inserted singleton and final blank cancelled), 116, 124, 139 (of 8, i an inserted singleton), 146, 152, 167 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 176, 187 (of 6, i an inserted singleton), 19-208, 212, COMPLETE. 27 pages with three-line illuminated initials and a panel border of spikey acanthus, ballflowers and golden disks and including a bird, beast or drollery, one page with a three-sided border of similar type, TWO LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES above four lines of text and SIX FULL-PAGE MINIATURES surrounded by full borders and the facing text page with a large illuminated or historiated initial and a three-sided border with drolleries (darkening of lower margin at ff.13v-14). 17th-century red morocco gilt, red morocco box.
PROVENANCE:
The Calendar is for the use of Utrecht with St. Jeroen in red typical of the County of Holland. An origin in South Holland, probably Leiden, is indicated by the miniatures and borders by the Masters of Hugo Jansz. van Woerden and the penwork flourished initials -- Jean-Baptiste Verdussen III (1698-1773), Alderman of Antwerp, member of the Académie impériale et royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles, writer of history, and bibliophile: his bookplate with a variant of the emblem of the family press on the inside upper cover; his posthumous sale in 1776 -- Henry-Auguste Brölemann (1775-1869) and his son Arthur (1826-1904): bookplate and blue-edged paper label 'A.48' inside upper cover -- by descent to Madame Etienne Mallet, Brölemann sale, Sotheby's, London, May 5, 1926, lot 70 -- Colonel David McCandless McKell (1881-1962) -- Acquired from Bernard M. Rosenthal, 1983.
CONTENT:
Calendar, use of Utrecht, ff.1-12v; Hours of the Virgin, in the compilation of Geert Grote ff.14-40v; Suffrages ff.41-47v; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.49-60v; Long Hours of the Cross ff.62-78v; Hours of the Eternal Wisdom ff.80-95v; Short Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.97-108v; Office of the Dead ff.110-132v.
ILLUMINATION:
A STRIKING EXAMPLE OF LATE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION BY THE MASTERS OF HUGO JANSZ. VAN WOERDEN. The Masters were named from perceived similarities between their work and the woodcut illustrations in books published by Hugo Jansz. van Woerden, who settled in Leiden in 1494. Their relationship to the woodcuts remains unclear: they were already active in the 1480s, most probably in Leiden, as borne out by the typically Leiden penwork flourishing in this manuscript, which is datable among their earlier works. The Masters are known for their bold simplified compositions with angular, elongated figures; their emphasis on flat shapes, pattern and outline transformed their borrowings from panel paintings and encouraged, or was encouraged by, their extensive borrowings from prints. Delightful features of this group are the exuberant borders of intertwined blue acanthus, flecked with drops of liquid gold and brightly colored flowers and inhabited by birds, animals and drolleries. The Masters often used fairly thin washes of paint -- akin to those used by print colorists--so that the strong, more opaque colors of the present volume are an especially attractive characteristic. It was one of the two manuscripts chosen from the twenty or so surviving to exemplify the Masters' work in the 1989-1990 exhibition The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting (catalogue no. 105).
The Vershbow manuscript is closely linked to two other Book of Hours within the group, which share the same 'blue tendril' borders of especially narrow, sinuous acanthus: one now in The Hague (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 132 G 38), the other in Berlin (Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Ms. Germ. qu. 18). In all three, the miniatures of the Office of the Dead follow the same pattern, although that in the present lot is more ambitious in its drawing of objects in space. It and the Berlin Hours contain remarkably similar composition of St. Roch and of the figures at Pentecost. The shared patterns drew on a wide range of sources: James Marrow noted that the Vershbow Trinity derives from the much imitated design originated by Robert Campin (the Master of Flémalle), preserved in a panel in St. Petersburg; the Nativity miniature derives from an engraving by Martin Schongauer; the representation of St. Anne with the Virgin and Child takes its inspiration from an engraving of the same subject by the Master IAM of Zwolle, active in the Netherlands c.1470-1490; the Pentecost miniature draws on the blockbook Biblia Pauperum, probably designed in the Netherlands c.1460.
From their eclectic borrowings, the Masters of Hugo Jansz. van Woerden forged a highly individual style that continues to appeal for its direct clarity and charm.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
The Nativity f.13v; St. Anne with the Virgin and Child f.41; St. Roch indicating his sore to the angel Raphael f.46; The Adoration of the Magi f.48v; The Crucifixion f.61v; The Trinity f.79v; Pentecost f.96v; Mass of the Dead f.109v