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The de Gourgues Hours, use of Rome, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Tours, c.1490-1500]
Details
Workshop of Jean Poyet
The de Gourgues Hours, use of Rome, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Tours, c.1490-1500]
A splendid work of Tours illumination: a richly illustrated Book of Hours with fine aristocratic French provenance.
161 x 111mm, iii + 94 + v leaves, complete, collation: 16 , 2-128, foliation in ink skipping ff.56-59, second pencil foliation correcting the earlier foliation from f.56, 22 lines, ruled space: 92 x 58, rubrics in blue or red, one-line initials in burnished gold on blue and red grounds and two-line initials in blue and red on burnished gold grounds throughout, four-line foliate initials in blue, red and gold beneath the large miniatures, 18 small miniatures within three-sided borders incorporating fruits, flowers, creatures, etc., 11 large miniatures within full borders of the same (some marginal staining and creasing, else in good condition). 18th-century red morocco binding gilt, 'MCDCRCL' on spine between interlaced double phis (edges lightly scuffed).
Provenance:
(1) The style of illumination is typical of Tours. The Calendar is generally Parisian, but we find Didier of Langres in blue on 11 February, and a suffrage is dedicated to him on ff.86-87v. It is plausible that the original owner had Burgundian connections.
(2) Armand-Guillaume de Gourgue (1736-1794), Marquis de Vayres and Aulnay and président à mortier in Paris: his 18th-century armorial bookplate on inside upper cover. De Gorgue was guillotined in 1794 for protesting the suppression of Parliament.
(3) Charles Richard de Vesvrotte (1757-1840), seigneur of Ruffey-lès-Beaune, comte de Vesvrotte and Trouhans, antiquarian adventurer and patron of the arts: ownership inscription 'Richard de Vesvrotte' on first flyleaf and early 19th-century armorial bookplate by JB Scotin on inside lower board. Charles was the son of Gilles Germain Richard de Ruffey, president of the Chambre des Comptes of Burgundy, a friend of Voltaire, Charles de Brosses and Buffon. The archives of the Richard de Vesvrotte and Richard de Ruffey families are now in Dijon, Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, 145 J 1-72. Likely by descent to:
(4) Alphonse Richard de Vesvrotte (1802-1873). Collection sale by Lamarche, Dijon, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. le Comte de Vesvrotte [...], 15 June 1886, lot 1187: sale clipping pasted in to inside lower board describing the manuscript as follows: 'Les peintures appartiennent à l’École de Tours, elles sont aussi remarquables par la beauté du travail que par leur conservation. Reliure en maroquin rouge, dentelle, doré sur tranches au chiffre de Peiresc'. A subsequent owner has erased 'Peiresc' and replaced it with 'Fouquet'. The double-phi cipher seen here on the binding is reminiscent of those of bibliophiles Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), scholar and patron of the sciences, and Nicolas Fouquet (1615-80), finance minister to Louis XIV.
(5) 'Sarcelles' added in an ?18th-century hand on f.1.
(6) Couturier and Nicolaÿ, Paris, Drouot, 20 March 1991, lot 94.
Contents:
Calendar, in French ff.1-6v; Gospel extracts ff.7-9v; Obsecro te and O intemerata ff.10-14; Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome ff.15-46: matins f.15, lauds f.22, prime f.29, terce f.32, sext f.34v, none f.37, vespers f.39v, compline f.44; Mass of the Virgin ff.47-50; Hours of the Cross ff.50-52v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.53-54v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.55-67v; Office of the Dead, with three lections, ff.68-77; blanks ff.77-78v; Suffrages ff.79-89; Hours of the Conception ff.90-91v; ruled blank f.92; Suffrage to St Louis f.93-93v; added prayers ff.94-94v.
Illumination:
This exquisite Book of Hours is the work of an accomplished artist whose style encapsulates the qualities of manuscript illumination in Tours at the end of the 15th century. His miniatures combine the elegance and accessibility of the great Jean Bourdichon (1491-1521) with elements and figure types adopted from the court painter Jean Poyet (active 1465-1503), recognised successor of Jean Fouquet, celebrated by the poet Jean Lemaire de Belges (1473-1525) as the equal of Simon Marmion and Rogier van der Weyden. Sacred narratives and figures are presented as three-quarter-length close-ups painted with a precise delicacy that would have satisfied both the devotional and the aesthetic requirements of its owners. Characteristic of the style are the slender figures with finely modelled heads; the women with down-cast faces, straight noses and blushing cheeks; a keen sensitivity for depth; and a subtle palette of pinks and blues heightened with fine wisps of gold.
The compositions here are in the dramatic close-up style introduced by Jean Bourdichon at Tours in the 1480s. Close parallels can be drawn with a Book of Hours belonging to Pierre Ladore, sold at Sotheby's on 3 December 2002, lot 37, now in a private collection, in which the miniatures are also in close-up: we see the same figural types, the same borders, the same use of colour. Also similar is a Book of Hours attributed by Mara Hofmann to the workshop of Jean Poyet, now in Budapest, Bibl. Széchényi: Cod. Lat. 225: see for example the Virgo Lactans surrounded by Angels on f.17 and compare to the Virgin on f.44 of our manuscript. Small miniatures reminiscent of those in the de Gourgues Hours can be found in another Poyet workshop Hours in New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.9 (on Poyet and Bourdichon see F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, pp.306-18; R.S. Wieck, W.M. Voelkle and K.M. Hearne, The Hours of Henry VIII, A Renaissance Masterpiece by Jean Poyet, 2000; and M. Hofmann, Jean Poyer: Das Gesamtwerk, 2004).
The subjects of the large miniatures and their respective border miniatures are:
Annunciation f.15; Visitation f.22; Nativity f.29; Annunciation to the shepherds f.32; Adoration of the Magi f.34v; Presentation in the Temple f.37; Flight into Egypt f.39v, Coronation of the Virgin f.44; Crucifixion f.50v; King David receiving the Holy Spirit f.55; Job on the dungheap f.68.
The subjects of the small miniatures are as follows:
St John f.7; Virgin and child f.10; Virgin Mary f.47; St Michael f.79; St Sebastian f.79v; St Nicholas f.80; St Claude f.80v; St Anthony Abbot f.81v; St Francis receiving the stigmata f.82; St George f.82v; St Catherine f.83; St Margaret f.84; St Avia in prison receiving communion from the Virgin f.84; St Barbara f.84v; St Didier f.86v; St Christopher f.88; Santa Apollonia f.89; St Louis f.93.
The de Gourgues Hours, use of Rome, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Tours, c.1490-1500]
A splendid work of Tours illumination: a richly illustrated Book of Hours with fine aristocratic French provenance.
161 x 111mm, iii + 94 + v leaves, complete, collation: 16 , 2-128, foliation in ink skipping ff.56-59, second pencil foliation correcting the earlier foliation from f.56, 22 lines, ruled space: 92 x 58, rubrics in blue or red, one-line initials in burnished gold on blue and red grounds and two-line initials in blue and red on burnished gold grounds throughout, four-line foliate initials in blue, red and gold beneath the large miniatures, 18 small miniatures within three-sided borders incorporating fruits, flowers, creatures, etc., 11 large miniatures within full borders of the same (some marginal staining and creasing, else in good condition). 18th-century red morocco binding gilt, 'MCDCRCL' on spine between interlaced double phis (edges lightly scuffed).
Provenance:
(1) The style of illumination is typical of Tours. The Calendar is generally Parisian, but we find Didier of Langres in blue on 11 February, and a suffrage is dedicated to him on ff.86-87v. It is plausible that the original owner had Burgundian connections.
(2) Armand-Guillaume de Gourgue (1736-1794), Marquis de Vayres and Aulnay and président à mortier in Paris: his 18th-century armorial bookplate on inside upper cover. De Gorgue was guillotined in 1794 for protesting the suppression of Parliament.
(3) Charles Richard de Vesvrotte (1757-1840), seigneur of Ruffey-lès-Beaune, comte de Vesvrotte and Trouhans, antiquarian adventurer and patron of the arts: ownership inscription 'Richard de Vesvrotte' on first flyleaf and early 19th-century armorial bookplate by JB Scotin on inside lower board. Charles was the son of Gilles Germain Richard de Ruffey, president of the Chambre des Comptes of Burgundy, a friend of Voltaire, Charles de Brosses and Buffon. The archives of the Richard de Vesvrotte and Richard de Ruffey families are now in Dijon, Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, 145 J 1-72. Likely by descent to:
(4) Alphonse Richard de Vesvrotte (1802-1873). Collection sale by Lamarche, Dijon, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. le Comte de Vesvrotte [...], 15 June 1886, lot 1187: sale clipping pasted in to inside lower board describing the manuscript as follows: 'Les peintures appartiennent à l’École de Tours, elles sont aussi remarquables par la beauté du travail que par leur conservation. Reliure en maroquin rouge, dentelle, doré sur tranches au chiffre de Peiresc'. A subsequent owner has erased 'Peiresc' and replaced it with 'Fouquet'. The double-phi cipher seen here on the binding is reminiscent of those of bibliophiles Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), scholar and patron of the sciences, and Nicolas Fouquet (1615-80), finance minister to Louis XIV.
(5) 'Sarcelles' added in an ?18th-century hand on f.1.
(6) Couturier and Nicolaÿ, Paris, Drouot, 20 March 1991, lot 94.
Contents:
Calendar, in French ff.1-6v; Gospel extracts ff.7-9v; Obsecro te and O intemerata ff.10-14; Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome ff.15-46: matins f.15, lauds f.22, prime f.29, terce f.32, sext f.34v, none f.37, vespers f.39v, compline f.44; Mass of the Virgin ff.47-50; Hours of the Cross ff.50-52v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.53-54v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.55-67v; Office of the Dead, with three lections, ff.68-77; blanks ff.77-78v; Suffrages ff.79-89; Hours of the Conception ff.90-91v; ruled blank f.92; Suffrage to St Louis f.93-93v; added prayers ff.94-94v.
Illumination:
This exquisite Book of Hours is the work of an accomplished artist whose style encapsulates the qualities of manuscript illumination in Tours at the end of the 15th century. His miniatures combine the elegance and accessibility of the great Jean Bourdichon (1491-1521) with elements and figure types adopted from the court painter Jean Poyet (active 1465-1503), recognised successor of Jean Fouquet, celebrated by the poet Jean Lemaire de Belges (1473-1525) as the equal of Simon Marmion and Rogier van der Weyden. Sacred narratives and figures are presented as three-quarter-length close-ups painted with a precise delicacy that would have satisfied both the devotional and the aesthetic requirements of its owners. Characteristic of the style are the slender figures with finely modelled heads; the women with down-cast faces, straight noses and blushing cheeks; a keen sensitivity for depth; and a subtle palette of pinks and blues heightened with fine wisps of gold.
The compositions here are in the dramatic close-up style introduced by Jean Bourdichon at Tours in the 1480s. Close parallels can be drawn with a Book of Hours belonging to Pierre Ladore, sold at Sotheby's on 3 December 2002, lot 37, now in a private collection, in which the miniatures are also in close-up: we see the same figural types, the same borders, the same use of colour. Also similar is a Book of Hours attributed by Mara Hofmann to the workshop of Jean Poyet, now in Budapest, Bibl. Széchényi: Cod. Lat. 225: see for example the Virgo Lactans surrounded by Angels on f.17 and compare to the Virgin on f.44 of our manuscript. Small miniatures reminiscent of those in the de Gourgues Hours can be found in another Poyet workshop Hours in New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.9 (on Poyet and Bourdichon see F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, pp.306-18; R.S. Wieck, W.M. Voelkle and K.M. Hearne, The Hours of Henry VIII, A Renaissance Masterpiece by Jean Poyet, 2000; and M. Hofmann, Jean Poyer: Das Gesamtwerk, 2004).
The subjects of the large miniatures and their respective border miniatures are:
Annunciation f.15; Visitation f.22; Nativity f.29; Annunciation to the shepherds f.32; Adoration of the Magi f.34v; Presentation in the Temple f.37; Flight into Egypt f.39v, Coronation of the Virgin f.44; Crucifixion f.50v; King David receiving the Holy Spirit f.55; Job on the dungheap f.68.
The subjects of the small miniatures are as follows:
St John f.7; Virgin and child f.10; Virgin Mary f.47; St Michael f.79; St Sebastian f.79v; St Nicholas f.80; St Claude f.80v; St Anthony Abbot f.81v; St Francis receiving the stigmata f.82; St George f.82v; St Catherine f.83; St Margaret f.84; St Avia in prison receiving communion from the Virgin f.84; St Barbara f.84v; St Didier f.86v; St Christopher f.88; Santa Apollonia f.89; St Louis f.93.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts