Details
THE INCE BLUNDELL HOURS, Book of Hours, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Bruges, c.1500]
115 x 80mm. 244 leaves: 12, 27(vii a singleton), 36, 411(i, iv and ix singletons with miniature on verso), 512(iii and vi singletons with miniature on verso), 69(ii singleton with miniature on verso), 79(vi singleton with miniature on verso), 88, 99(ix singleton), 107(ii singleton with miniature on verso), 118, 1210(i and viii singletons with miniature on verso), 1310(ii and ix singletons with miniature on verso), 149(v singleton with miniature on verso), 159(v singleton with miniature on verso), 169(iii singleton with miniature on verso), 1710(vi and vii singletons, vi with minature on verso), 188, 196, 206, 219(i singleton with miniature on verso), 228, 239(viii singleton with miniature on verso), 24-288, 299, 304, COMPLETE, the Calendar with 17 lines written in black and pink, two-line initials with grey staves against ochre grounds, each month extending over facing verso and recto with TWENTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE BORDERS COMPRISING TWELVE CONTINUOUS SCENES OF THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE MONTHS IN EXTENSIVE LANDSCAPE SETTINGS, the remainder of the manuscript in 15 lines written in black ink in a round gothic bookhand between 2 verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in red, justification: 59 x 40mm, rubrics in red, one- and two-line initials with grey foliate staves against grounds of red heightened with liquid gold, each devotion opening with a five-line initial with brown and gold foliate staves against grounds of blue, pink or green, EIGHTEEN FULL-PAGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES WITH SURROUNDING BORDERS and matching borders on the facing pages, TWENTY-SEVEN BAS-DE-PAGE OR SMALL MINIATURES WITH THREE-SIDED OR FULL-PAGE BORDERS, one historiated initial in camïeu d'or with a three-sided border, the borders mostly of two types, either Ghent-Bruges scatter borders of flowers and fruit with insects or birds against gold or coloured grounds or complex architectural borders, several including figures of sculpture, putti or the donor (slight thumbing to the outer margins of the first 40 folios). French 19th-century maroon morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and blind, gilt doublures and gilt vellum liners, edges gilt and gauffered, brown straight-grain morocco slipcase.
AN ENTIRELY UNRECORDED MANUSCRIPT LAVISHLY AND EXQUISITELY ILLUMINATED BY ONE OF THE FOREMOST ARTISTS OF THE 'GHENT-BRUGES' SCHOOL
PROVENANCE:
1. The manuscript is written in the round script, characteristically Italian, that was used for books produced for southern Europeans resident in Bruges, and was clearly illuminated for the young woman in Italian dress who is portrayed three times. She is shown in two miniatures: on folio 30 in prayer to the Lamentation on the facing verso, on folio 142 in prayer to the Virgin and Child on the facing verso, and kneeling in a niche in the border of folio 153 praying to the figure of St Michael the Archangel. In all cases her portrait is accompanied by a coat of arms, or three pales sable, that is also painted on folios 16v, 96, 107v and 162v. Although the shields were clearly painted after the completion of the borders, there is no sign of any prior underpainting and these arms undoubtedly belong to the earliest owner of the book. Two Italian families used this coat of arms: the Agliata, or Alliata of Pisa and Sicily, and the Negrone of Genoa. In 1465 a Pisan merchant appeared before the magistrates of Bruges on behalf of another Pisan merchant, 'Baptiste Aliate', and again in 1469 as executor and factor for Alliata's children. The coat of arms is included in the border of the page with the suffrage to the Magdalene, and, in the Raising of Lazarus miniature, that saint is in an unusually prominent position and bears a marked resemblance to the portraits of the owner of the manuscript; could the manuscript have been destined for a Maria Maddalena Alliata?
2. Ince Blundell Hall: the manuscript has come by descent to the present owner from Ince Blundell Hall, home of Henry Blundell (1724-1810), the great collector of antique statuary and the patron of Stubbs, Wilson and Canova. His son Charles (d.1837) continued to purchase paintings and drawings to augment his father's collection, and was especially interested in Early Netherlandish Painting. Charles bequeathed Ince Blundell to his nearest male relative, Thomas Weld who then added Blundell to his name.
Thomas Weld-Blundell was the grandson of Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle (1750-1810), founder of Stonyhurst College, who owned the Bedford Psalter and the Luttrell Psalter before their acquisition by the British Library. It is yet to be established whether this manuscript descended from Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle or from the Blundells.
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.3v-15; Salve sancta facies ff.17-18; Short Hours of the Cross ff.20-28; Prayer on the compassion of the Virgin and St John ff.30-31; Short Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.33-39; Mass of the Virgin ff.41-46; Gospel Sequences ff.46-52v; Office of the Virgin ff.54-140: matins f.54, lauds f.76, prime f.90, terce f.96, sext f.102, none f.108, vespers f.114, compline f.123, variants for Advent f.130; Prayers to the Virgin ff.142-150v: O Domina glorie. O Fons pietatis & misericordie f.142, Obsecro te f.143, O Intemerata f.147v; Suffrages ff.151-166v: Gregory f.151, Michael f.153, John the Baptist f.154, John the Evangelist f.155, Peter and Paul f.156, James f.157, Anthony f.158, Sebastian f.159, Nicholas f.160v, Anne f.161v, Mary Magdalene 162v, Catherine f.163v, Barbara f.164v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.167-188; Office of the Dead ff.191-238v; Athanasian Creed ff.239-243.
ILLUMINATION:
This is a quite exceptional Book of Hours in both the beauty and the extent of its illumination: from the panorama of contemporary life provided by the Calendar illustrations and the portraits of the young owner to the affecting sequence of half-length devotional images. The manuscript has not previously been published. A luxury commission itself, it can be added to the manuscripts grouped around the Hours illuminated for Joanna of Castile, daughter of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, and wife of Philip the Handsome, son of Maximilian I (BL, Add. Ms. 18852). All of the books in this group are small in format and have characteristic architectural borders; they were first discussed and recognised as a distinct group by Dr Thomas Kren. Some of them are routine and modest Hours, in both content and execution, while others - such as the Joanna manuscript, a royal commission - are richly illustrated manuscrits-de-luxe. Kren identified the finest work in them - in the Hours of Joanna of Castile itself - as by the illuminator known as the Master of the David Scenes of the Grimani Breviary: A Book of Hours in the Beinecke Library (Ms 287) and an atelier from the Ghent-Bruges School, unpublished thesis Yale University, 1974, and Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library (New York & London, 1984), no 7, pp.59-62. The Ince Blundell Hours was also painted by this illuminator.
The Master of the David Scenes of the Grimani Breviary acquired his unwieldy name from a later work: his contribution to what is arguably the most ambitious and famous manuscript of the 16th century. Although it was in Venice before 1520 when its owner Cardinal Domenico Grimani died, the Breviary (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms lat.I.99) had been made in Flanders around 1510-15 and was probably commissioned at the court of Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands.
Dr Bodo Brinkmann has added further Books of Hours to Kren's original group and endorsed the attribution of the finest work to the Master of the David Scenes: Offizium der Madonna: Der Codex Vat.lat.10293 und verwandte kleine Stundenbcher mit Architekturbordren. Kommentarband zur Faksimileausgabe des Cod.Vat.lat.10293: Codices e Vaticanis Selecti...72 (Stuttgart & Zurich, 1992). The present manuscript was unknown to both Thomas Kren and Bodo Brinkmann but its place among the group is demonstrated by more than the similarity in size, script and the use of architectural borders; there are very precise analogies in composition and motif.
Scenes from the Passion, for example the Deposition from the Cross and the Entombment, and the miniature of St Luke employ the same compositions as in the Hours of Joanna of Castile. The calendars of both manuscripts are decorated with a remarkable cycle of twenty-four full-page borders where the activities or labours of the month are shown in town or country settings. Figures or groups of figures can be matched from one manuscript to the other: for March the whole of the verso with the gardeners filling plant-pots is common to both books, while for June just one group of figures - the picnickers - and for April only one figure - the shepherd wiping his nose - reappear. Perhaps the most arresting repetition of a single design is the Italian renaissance setting before which the text and miniature of St Luke are suspended in the Book of Hours in Brussels (Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms iv. 237, f.43); this appears in the present manuscript around the text panel and portrait of the young woman on f.30. The use of workshop patterns as a way of easing and speeding production was a feature of the highly developed manuscript trade of the 15th century and this particular design is also used in the Beinecke Hours (New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, Ms 287), but it has a particular relevance in the Ince Blundell Hours, and was no doubt a considered choice selected to provide an appropriate setting for the book's young Italian owner.
Other borders are less precise duplicates but are made up of components easily recognised in other Hours of the group - fountains, fonts, circular arcades and decorated columns - and are painted by an illuminator who worked in association with the Master of the David Scenes in the other manuscripts. In general, however, the architectural borders in the Ince Blundell Hours show a less gratuitous inclusion of complex forms and juxtaposition; they are more rational presentations where the miniature is often integrated - the architecture serving as a frame, or providing an embrasure or arcade corresponding to the picture field - rather than just being suspended before a complicated but incoherent combination of architectural features and spaces.
Many of the less complex borders are closer to the types of architectural border surrounding the Simon Marmion miniatures in the Book of Hours in Naples known as 'La Flora' (Biblioteca Nazionale, I.B.51), which have been attributed to the Master of the Older Prayerbook of Maximilian: Bodo Brinkmann, Die Flämische Buchmalerei am Ende des Burgunderreichs: der Meister des Dresdener Gebetbuchs und die Miniaturisten seiner Zeit (Turnhout, 1997). The complexities of collaboration and cross-influence among the illuminators of this period are well-rehearsed, and Dr Brinkmann has also suggested the involvement of the David Scenes Master in border decoration around Marmion miniatures (p.211). Contact with the work of Marmion, who was called by a contemporary 'the very prince of book illumination', seems to have been responsible for one aspect of the Ince Blundell Hours that makes the manuscript so remarkable - the extensive sequence of half-length narrative scenes that illustrate every devotion but for the Office of the Cross and the Suffrages. The use of such an apposite form to illustrate a small, hand-held devotional text, exploiting the greater immediacy and affective expressivity of a close-up, is particularly associated with Marmion.
The present Hours confirms the Master of the David Scenes' knowledge of Marmion's work in the Huth Hours (BL, Ms Add. 38126) and - if not of 'La Flora' - of a manuscript with a very similar sequence of half-length miniatures. One of the handful of half-length compositions in the Huth Hours is the miniature of Pentecost (f.45v), and this is clearly the source of the Ince Blundell miniature, even to the colour of the clothing of the foreground figures, except that the grey of the right-hand Apostle has become colour-shaded white; the only significant differences are the raising of the background Apostles to occupy more of the picture field and the repositioning of the Dove. But, although there is no such precise dependence in relation to the 'La Flora' Hours, it is the cycle of miniatures from that manuscript that seems particularly relevant to the half-length narratives of the present book. There too sacred events take place in fully described settings rather than against gilded backgrounds and, even though no scene is completely duplicated, the similarities are so evocative as to suggest that the Master of the David Scenes either had access to another Marmion cycle that provided exact models, or that the 'La Flora' miniatures made such an impression on him that he not only adopted various figures - for example, the figure of the king, including his costume and gestures, from the David in Prayer - but devised a comparable series of narratives for the book he was currently illustrating.
The latter explanation is, perhaps, the more likely. The miniatures in the Ince Blundell Hours reveal debts to both the compositions and style of Hugo van der Goes, Gerard David and Hans Memling. Having decided to adopt the half-length form, the Master of the David Scenes appears to have considered panel-paintings in that format produced by his great compatriots, their example spurring the Master to a consistent quality of execution and achievement unequalled in any of the other Hours of the group - even the Hours of Joanna of Castile. Both the design and technique of the illumination in the Ince Blundell Hours, borders and miniatures, are treated with an exceptional attention and care; the assessment of the Joanna Hours as the finest of the group, and the only one where the hand of the Master of the David Scenes predominates, must be revised. With the Ince Blundell Hours he created an intimate and personal devotional object that is also ONE OF THE FINEST ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE GHENT-BRUGES SCHOOL.
The subjects of the Calendar scenes are as follows:
ff.3v & 4 January, on the verso a view into a hall where a man sits by a table in front of a fire and a woman carries in food, on the facing recto a scene with a frozen lake, in the foreground a skater, a seated man in rearview and a woman on a sledge being pulled along by one man, another pushing from behind. Aquarius in the sky.
ff.4v & 5 February, a landscape across both pages with people gathering wood, a town in the distance beyond a river. Pisces in the sky.
ff.5v & 6 March, on the verso a garden with two men filling pots, a large house in the background, on the facing recto an extensive view with a distant town, a ship and boats at anchor, houses in the middle distance and scenes of men digging in the foreground. Aries in the sky.
ff.6v & 7 April, a continuous landscape with shepherds and their flocks on the verso, and on the facing recto lovers walking, music-making and dining. Taurus in the sky.
ff.7v & 8 May, a continuous landscape with one pair of lovers seated in the foreground on the left while on the right, in a boat poled along by one man, another serenades two women, a large city in the distance. Gemini in the sky.
ff.8v & 9 June, a continuous landscape with shepherds having a picnic in front of a house, a woman milking a cow in the middle distance on the left, on the right shepherds and sheep, a shepherdess shearing. Cancer in the sky.
ff.9v & 10 July, a continuous landscape with scenes of haymaking and a picnic in the middle distance on the left. Leo in the sky.
ff.10v & 11 August, a continuous landscape with scenes of harvesting. Virgo in the sky
ff.11v & 12 September, a continuous landscape with ploughing and sowing on the left and peasants lunching in the foreground of the right. Libra in the sky.
ff.12v & 13 October, a continuous landscape with a mountainous background, grapes being harvested on the left and being pressed on the right. Scorpio in the sky.
ff.13v & 14 November, on the verso the slaughtering of animals, the feeding of pigs on acorns on the facing recto. Aquarius in the sky.
ff.14v & 15 December, on the verso corn being threshed in a barn, on the facing recto a quayside scene with the loading and unloading of wood bundles. Capricorn in the sky.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f.16v Half-length figure of Christ holding a crystal orb, his hand raised in blessing, within an architectural frame with a coat of arms, facing (f.17) an architectural border with music-making angels in the niches
f.19v Agony in the garden, the three Apostles asleep in the foreground, an angel appearing to Christ, a torchlit procession leaving the gates of Jerusalem in the distance, within a Ghent-Bruges style border with strewn flowers and berries and two butterflies, facing
f.20 Arrest of Christ, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and berries and two butterflies
f.21 Christ before Caiaphus, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and berries and three butterflies
f.22 Flagellation of Christ with the Crowning with Thorns visible in an antechamber, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and berries and two butterflies
f.23 Carrying of the Cross, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and two butterflies
f.24v Crucifixion, Christ on the Cross between the two thieves, the Virgin, Magdalene and St John lamenting on the left and Longinus on horseback indicating the Son of God on the right, all within an architectural frame that includes a statue of a standing saint, on the facing page a border of strewn flowers and fruit with a snail, moth and butterfly
f.26 Deposition from the Cross, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and three butterflies
f.27 Entombment, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided architectural border with jewels, strings of beads and a statue of a martyr saint in a vaulted niche
f.29v Lamentation over the body of Christ in half-length, St John supporting the corpse with the Virgin standing beside him, the Magdalene kneeling by him and anointing the wound in Christ's hand
f.30 three-quarter-length figure of a young woman in Italian dress, her hair braided in a coazzone, kneeling at a prie-dieu in a colonnaded loggia, a Flemish town in the background, the miniature and text below treated as though on a screen held by two putti in front of an italianate baldacchino and renaissance profile medallions, two putti at the bottom of the border holding a coat of arms
f.32v Pentecost in half-length, an architectural border with the miniature framed within one bay of a circular arcade surrounding a hexagonal fountain or font, on the facing page an architectural border with standing figures of saints and in the bas-de-page the Dove of the Holy Spirit with a banderole
f.40v Virgin and Child in half-length, the Virgin offering her breast to the naked infant who is supported on a cushion, a border with pendant golden jewels and pearls against a blue background, on the facing page a border of strewn flowers with butterflies
f.46 John the Evangelist on Patmos (small miniature) with a shoreside city in the distance and the vision of the red dragon with seven heads in the sky, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.47v St Luke in an interior (small miniature), seated at a desk beneath his portrait of the Virgin and Child, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.49v St Matthew in an interior (small miniature), writing at his desk watched by his angel symbol, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.51v St Mark in an interior (small miniature), writing at his desk with his lion at his side, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.53v Annunciation, half-length figures of Gabriel and the Virgin against a golden ground, a small figure of God in an aureole above, all framed by a golden border with a pot of lilies, a spray of roses without thorns, flies and butterfly, a matching border on the facing page
f.75v Visitation, half-length figures of the Virgin and St Elizabeth in a country setting, framed within an embrasure with mouldings and engaged columns, niches with statues to one side and a base with coloured oculi below, on the facing page an architectural border with figures of saints and a complex, coloured base
f.89v Nativity, half-length figures of the Virgin and Joseph adoring the naked Christ Child in a manger, the ox and ass behind them, strewn border with flowers, fruit and insects, a similar border on the facing page
f.95v Annunciation to the Shepherds, half-length figures of two shepherds, regarding and indicating an angel in the sky, the landscape behind them with buildings and a windmill, in an architectural frame with a statue in a niche, on the facing page an architectural frame with window-sill and wainscotting holding a vase of flowers and a coat of arms
f.101v Adoration of the Magi in half-length, strewn border with flowers and insects, a matching border on the facing recto
f.107v Presentation in the Temple in half-length, Simeon holding the Christ Child above an altar, the Virgin holding two doves, Joseph and Anna behind her, all beneath a green curtain within a gothic interior, the miniature within an architectural frame with two statues in niches and a coat of arms, an architectural border on the facing recto
f.113v Massacre of the Innocents in half-length, in the foreground a woman attempting to fend off a soldier with raised sword who holds her infant's leg, in the middle distance another soldier strikes at a woman and child, within a border strewn wih strawberries, birds and insects, a similar border on the facing recto
f.122v Flight into Egypt in half-length, Joseph leading the ass with the Virgin and Child through a landscape, within an architectural frame with a view into a room with an altar, an architectural frame with two statues on the facing recto
f.129v Coronation of the Virgin in half-length, on the left a youthful God wearing a closed crown blesses the kneeling, praying figure of the Virgin, a crown and the Dove of the Holy Spirit hover above her head, within a border strewn with flowers and butterflies, a similar border on the facing recto
f.141v Virgin and Child in half-length, the Virgin cradling in her arms the naked Christ Child who holds cherries, within an architectural frame with niches holding figures of music-making angels, and facing
f.142 three-quarter-length figure of a young woman in Italian dress kneeling before a prie-dieu praying, her Book of Hours open at the image of the Virgin and Child, set in an arcaded loggia, within an architectural border with a coat of arms
f.143 Initial O with the Pietà in camïeu d'or, accompanied by a full border with niches with statues
f.147v three-quarter-length figures of the Virgin and Evangelist at the foot of the cross (small miniature), with a three-sided border strewn with flowers and moths
f.151 Mass of St Gregory (small miniature), three-sided border strewn with flowers
f.153 St Michael weighing a soul (small miniature), full border with a kneeling figure of a young woman praying towards the miniature and containing two coats of arms, one supported by two putti
f.154 John the Baptist with the Agnus Dei in a landscape (small miniature), three-sided border strewn with flowers
f.155 St John the Evangelist standing outside a town (small miniature), three-sided border with jewels
f.156 Sts Peter and Paul standing, in the background a large rotunda (small miniature), three-sided border strewn with flowers, a papal tiara and the crossed keys of St Peter in the upper border and two chubby putti supporting a wreath containing a shield charged with a horse's skull
f.157 St James sitting sleeping on an isle with a great city on the shore behind him (small miniature), three-sided border with cockleshells, crossed staffs and a pilgrim's bag interspersed with scattered flowers
f.158 St Anthony seated at prayer accompanied by his pig (small miniature), three-sided border with bells and letters tau, with jewels and swags in the lower border
f.159 St Sebastian tied to a column, archers behind him taking aim (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn acanthus and flowers
f.160v St Nicholas seated before a cloth of honour that partly obscures the boys in a tub (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn flowers
f.161v St Anne seated beside the Virgin and Child outside a town (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn acanthus and flowers
f.162v Mary Magdalene standing three-quarter-length in a Netherlandish street (small miniature), three-sided border with martyrs' palms and ceramic pots, swags and a coat of arms in the lower border
f.163v St Catherine seated three-quarter-length in a landscape, a book and sword on her lap and a torture wheel leaning against a building behind her (small miniature), three-sided border with swords and wheels and two cavorting putti with swags in the lower border
f.164v St Barbara seated three-quarter-length against a window embrasure, the landscape behind her containing a tower (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn flowers
f.166v David in Prayer in half-length, with his harp tucked under his arm raising his hands towards the bust of God the Father in the sky, a large romanesque palace and church in the background, within a border strewn with flowers, butterflies and birds, a similar border on the facing recto
f.190v Raising of Lazarus in half-length, Jesus in the foreground blessing the pallid risen corpse, the Magdalene immediately behind gesturing to Christ, five other spectators looking on, within an architectural frame containing a hanging string of beads at the side and a pool with two swans at the foot, on the facing recto an architectural border with two niches with figures
f.239 Trinity, with God the Father enthroned, holding the the body of the dead Christ, the dove of the Holy Spirit hovering above (small miniature), three-sided border with bust-length Trinity and banderoles
[Bruges, c.1500]
115 x 80mm. 244 leaves: 12, 27(vii a singleton), 36, 411(i, iv and ix singletons with miniature on verso), 512(iii and vi singletons with miniature on verso), 69(ii singleton with miniature on verso), 79(vi singleton with miniature on verso), 88, 99(ix singleton), 107(ii singleton with miniature on verso), 118, 1210(i and viii singletons with miniature on verso), 1310(ii and ix singletons with miniature on verso), 149(v singleton with miniature on verso), 159(v singleton with miniature on verso), 169(iii singleton with miniature on verso), 1710(vi and vii singletons, vi with minature on verso), 188, 196, 206, 219(i singleton with miniature on verso), 228, 239(viii singleton with miniature on verso), 24-288, 299, 304, COMPLETE, the Calendar with 17 lines written in black and pink, two-line initials with grey staves against ochre grounds, each month extending over facing verso and recto with TWENTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE BORDERS COMPRISING TWELVE CONTINUOUS SCENES OF THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE MONTHS IN EXTENSIVE LANDSCAPE SETTINGS, the remainder of the manuscript in 15 lines written in black ink in a round gothic bookhand between 2 verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in red, justification: 59 x 40mm, rubrics in red, one- and two-line initials with grey foliate staves against grounds of red heightened with liquid gold, each devotion opening with a five-line initial with brown and gold foliate staves against grounds of blue, pink or green, EIGHTEEN FULL-PAGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES WITH SURROUNDING BORDERS and matching borders on the facing pages, TWENTY-SEVEN BAS-DE-PAGE OR SMALL MINIATURES WITH THREE-SIDED OR FULL-PAGE BORDERS, one historiated initial in camïeu d'or with a three-sided border, the borders mostly of two types, either Ghent-Bruges scatter borders of flowers and fruit with insects or birds against gold or coloured grounds or complex architectural borders, several including figures of sculpture, putti or the donor (slight thumbing to the outer margins of the first 40 folios). French 19th-century maroon morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and blind, gilt doublures and gilt vellum liners, edges gilt and gauffered, brown straight-grain morocco slipcase.
AN ENTIRELY UNRECORDED MANUSCRIPT LAVISHLY AND EXQUISITELY ILLUMINATED BY ONE OF THE FOREMOST ARTISTS OF THE 'GHENT-BRUGES' SCHOOL
PROVENANCE:
1. The manuscript is written in the round script, characteristically Italian, that was used for books produced for southern Europeans resident in Bruges, and was clearly illuminated for the young woman in Italian dress who is portrayed three times. She is shown in two miniatures: on folio 30 in prayer to the Lamentation on the facing verso, on folio 142 in prayer to the Virgin and Child on the facing verso, and kneeling in a niche in the border of folio 153 praying to the figure of St Michael the Archangel. In all cases her portrait is accompanied by a coat of arms, or three pales sable, that is also painted on folios 16v, 96, 107v and 162v. Although the shields were clearly painted after the completion of the borders, there is no sign of any prior underpainting and these arms undoubtedly belong to the earliest owner of the book. Two Italian families used this coat of arms: the Agliata, or Alliata of Pisa and Sicily, and the Negrone of Genoa. In 1465 a Pisan merchant appeared before the magistrates of Bruges on behalf of another Pisan merchant, 'Baptiste Aliate', and again in 1469 as executor and factor for Alliata's children. The coat of arms is included in the border of the page with the suffrage to the Magdalene, and, in the Raising of Lazarus miniature, that saint is in an unusually prominent position and bears a marked resemblance to the portraits of the owner of the manuscript; could the manuscript have been destined for a Maria Maddalena Alliata?
2. Ince Blundell Hall: the manuscript has come by descent to the present owner from Ince Blundell Hall, home of Henry Blundell (1724-1810), the great collector of antique statuary and the patron of Stubbs, Wilson and Canova. His son Charles (d.1837) continued to purchase paintings and drawings to augment his father's collection, and was especially interested in Early Netherlandish Painting. Charles bequeathed Ince Blundell to his nearest male relative, Thomas Weld who then added Blundell to his name.
Thomas Weld-Blundell was the grandson of Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle (1750-1810), founder of Stonyhurst College, who owned the Bedford Psalter and the Luttrell Psalter before their acquisition by the British Library. It is yet to be established whether this manuscript descended from Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle or from the Blundells.
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.3v-15; Salve sancta facies ff.17-18; Short Hours of the Cross ff.20-28; Prayer on the compassion of the Virgin and St John ff.30-31; Short Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.33-39; Mass of the Virgin ff.41-46; Gospel Sequences ff.46-52v; Office of the Virgin ff.54-140: matins f.54, lauds f.76, prime f.90, terce f.96, sext f.102, none f.108, vespers f.114, compline f.123, variants for Advent f.130; Prayers to the Virgin ff.142-150v: O Domina glorie. O Fons pietatis & misericordie f.142, Obsecro te f.143, O Intemerata f.147v; Suffrages ff.151-166v: Gregory f.151, Michael f.153, John the Baptist f.154, John the Evangelist f.155, Peter and Paul f.156, James f.157, Anthony f.158, Sebastian f.159, Nicholas f.160v, Anne f.161v, Mary Magdalene 162v, Catherine f.163v, Barbara f.164v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.167-188; Office of the Dead ff.191-238v; Athanasian Creed ff.239-243.
ILLUMINATION:
This is a quite exceptional Book of Hours in both the beauty and the extent of its illumination: from the panorama of contemporary life provided by the Calendar illustrations and the portraits of the young owner to the affecting sequence of half-length devotional images. The manuscript has not previously been published. A luxury commission itself, it can be added to the manuscripts grouped around the Hours illuminated for Joanna of Castile, daughter of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, and wife of Philip the Handsome, son of Maximilian I (BL, Add. Ms. 18852). All of the books in this group are small in format and have characteristic architectural borders; they were first discussed and recognised as a distinct group by Dr Thomas Kren. Some of them are routine and modest Hours, in both content and execution, while others - such as the Joanna manuscript, a royal commission - are richly illustrated manuscrits-de-luxe. Kren identified the finest work in them - in the Hours of Joanna of Castile itself - as by the illuminator known as the Master of the David Scenes of the Grimani Breviary: A Book of Hours in the Beinecke Library (Ms 287) and an atelier from the Ghent-Bruges School, unpublished thesis Yale University, 1974, and Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library (New York & London, 1984), no 7, pp.59-62. The Ince Blundell Hours was also painted by this illuminator.
The Master of the David Scenes of the Grimani Breviary acquired his unwieldy name from a later work: his contribution to what is arguably the most ambitious and famous manuscript of the 16th century. Although it was in Venice before 1520 when its owner Cardinal Domenico Grimani died, the Breviary (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms lat.I.99) had been made in Flanders around 1510-15 and was probably commissioned at the court of Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands.
Dr Bodo Brinkmann has added further Books of Hours to Kren's original group and endorsed the attribution of the finest work to the Master of the David Scenes: Offizium der Madonna: Der Codex Vat.lat.10293 und verwandte kleine Stundenbcher mit Architekturbordren. Kommentarband zur Faksimileausgabe des Cod.Vat.lat.10293: Codices e Vaticanis Selecti...72 (Stuttgart & Zurich, 1992). The present manuscript was unknown to both Thomas Kren and Bodo Brinkmann but its place among the group is demonstrated by more than the similarity in size, script and the use of architectural borders; there are very precise analogies in composition and motif.
Scenes from the Passion, for example the Deposition from the Cross and the Entombment, and the miniature of St Luke employ the same compositions as in the Hours of Joanna of Castile. The calendars of both manuscripts are decorated with a remarkable cycle of twenty-four full-page borders where the activities or labours of the month are shown in town or country settings. Figures or groups of figures can be matched from one manuscript to the other: for March the whole of the verso with the gardeners filling plant-pots is common to both books, while for June just one group of figures - the picnickers - and for April only one figure - the shepherd wiping his nose - reappear. Perhaps the most arresting repetition of a single design is the Italian renaissance setting before which the text and miniature of St Luke are suspended in the Book of Hours in Brussels (Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms iv. 237, f.43); this appears in the present manuscript around the text panel and portrait of the young woman on f.30. The use of workshop patterns as a way of easing and speeding production was a feature of the highly developed manuscript trade of the 15th century and this particular design is also used in the Beinecke Hours (New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, Ms 287), but it has a particular relevance in the Ince Blundell Hours, and was no doubt a considered choice selected to provide an appropriate setting for the book's young Italian owner.
Other borders are less precise duplicates but are made up of components easily recognised in other Hours of the group - fountains, fonts, circular arcades and decorated columns - and are painted by an illuminator who worked in association with the Master of the David Scenes in the other manuscripts. In general, however, the architectural borders in the Ince Blundell Hours show a less gratuitous inclusion of complex forms and juxtaposition; they are more rational presentations where the miniature is often integrated - the architecture serving as a frame, or providing an embrasure or arcade corresponding to the picture field - rather than just being suspended before a complicated but incoherent combination of architectural features and spaces.
Many of the less complex borders are closer to the types of architectural border surrounding the Simon Marmion miniatures in the Book of Hours in Naples known as 'La Flora' (Biblioteca Nazionale, I.B.51), which have been attributed to the Master of the Older Prayerbook of Maximilian: Bodo Brinkmann, Die Flämische Buchmalerei am Ende des Burgunderreichs: der Meister des Dresdener Gebetbuchs und die Miniaturisten seiner Zeit (Turnhout, 1997). The complexities of collaboration and cross-influence among the illuminators of this period are well-rehearsed, and Dr Brinkmann has also suggested the involvement of the David Scenes Master in border decoration around Marmion miniatures (p.211). Contact with the work of Marmion, who was called by a contemporary 'the very prince of book illumination', seems to have been responsible for one aspect of the Ince Blundell Hours that makes the manuscript so remarkable - the extensive sequence of half-length narrative scenes that illustrate every devotion but for the Office of the Cross and the Suffrages. The use of such an apposite form to illustrate a small, hand-held devotional text, exploiting the greater immediacy and affective expressivity of a close-up, is particularly associated with Marmion.
The present Hours confirms the Master of the David Scenes' knowledge of Marmion's work in the Huth Hours (BL, Ms Add. 38126) and - if not of 'La Flora' - of a manuscript with a very similar sequence of half-length miniatures. One of the handful of half-length compositions in the Huth Hours is the miniature of Pentecost (f.45v), and this is clearly the source of the Ince Blundell miniature, even to the colour of the clothing of the foreground figures, except that the grey of the right-hand Apostle has become colour-shaded white; the only significant differences are the raising of the background Apostles to occupy more of the picture field and the repositioning of the Dove. But, although there is no such precise dependence in relation to the 'La Flora' Hours, it is the cycle of miniatures from that manuscript that seems particularly relevant to the half-length narratives of the present book. There too sacred events take place in fully described settings rather than against gilded backgrounds and, even though no scene is completely duplicated, the similarities are so evocative as to suggest that the Master of the David Scenes either had access to another Marmion cycle that provided exact models, or that the 'La Flora' miniatures made such an impression on him that he not only adopted various figures - for example, the figure of the king, including his costume and gestures, from the David in Prayer - but devised a comparable series of narratives for the book he was currently illustrating.
The latter explanation is, perhaps, the more likely. The miniatures in the Ince Blundell Hours reveal debts to both the compositions and style of Hugo van der Goes, Gerard David and Hans Memling. Having decided to adopt the half-length form, the Master of the David Scenes appears to have considered panel-paintings in that format produced by his great compatriots, their example spurring the Master to a consistent quality of execution and achievement unequalled in any of the other Hours of the group - even the Hours of Joanna of Castile. Both the design and technique of the illumination in the Ince Blundell Hours, borders and miniatures, are treated with an exceptional attention and care; the assessment of the Joanna Hours as the finest of the group, and the only one where the hand of the Master of the David Scenes predominates, must be revised. With the Ince Blundell Hours he created an intimate and personal devotional object that is also ONE OF THE FINEST ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE GHENT-BRUGES SCHOOL.
The subjects of the Calendar scenes are as follows:
ff.3v & 4 January, on the verso a view into a hall where a man sits by a table in front of a fire and a woman carries in food, on the facing recto a scene with a frozen lake, in the foreground a skater, a seated man in rearview and a woman on a sledge being pulled along by one man, another pushing from behind. Aquarius in the sky.
ff.4v & 5 February, a landscape across both pages with people gathering wood, a town in the distance beyond a river. Pisces in the sky.
ff.5v & 6 March, on the verso a garden with two men filling pots, a large house in the background, on the facing recto an extensive view with a distant town, a ship and boats at anchor, houses in the middle distance and scenes of men digging in the foreground. Aries in the sky.
ff.6v & 7 April, a continuous landscape with shepherds and their flocks on the verso, and on the facing recto lovers walking, music-making and dining. Taurus in the sky.
ff.7v & 8 May, a continuous landscape with one pair of lovers seated in the foreground on the left while on the right, in a boat poled along by one man, another serenades two women, a large city in the distance. Gemini in the sky.
ff.8v & 9 June, a continuous landscape with shepherds having a picnic in front of a house, a woman milking a cow in the middle distance on the left, on the right shepherds and sheep, a shepherdess shearing. Cancer in the sky.
ff.9v & 10 July, a continuous landscape with scenes of haymaking and a picnic in the middle distance on the left. Leo in the sky.
ff.10v & 11 August, a continuous landscape with scenes of harvesting. Virgo in the sky
ff.11v & 12 September, a continuous landscape with ploughing and sowing on the left and peasants lunching in the foreground of the right. Libra in the sky.
ff.12v & 13 October, a continuous landscape with a mountainous background, grapes being harvested on the left and being pressed on the right. Scorpio in the sky.
ff.13v & 14 November, on the verso the slaughtering of animals, the feeding of pigs on acorns on the facing recto. Aquarius in the sky.
ff.14v & 15 December, on the verso corn being threshed in a barn, on the facing recto a quayside scene with the loading and unloading of wood bundles. Capricorn in the sky.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f.16v Half-length figure of Christ holding a crystal orb, his hand raised in blessing, within an architectural frame with a coat of arms, facing (f.17) an architectural border with music-making angels in the niches
f.19v Agony in the garden, the three Apostles asleep in the foreground, an angel appearing to Christ, a torchlit procession leaving the gates of Jerusalem in the distance, within a Ghent-Bruges style border with strewn flowers and berries and two butterflies, facing
f.20 Arrest of Christ, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and berries and two butterflies
f.21 Christ before Caiaphus, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and berries and three butterflies
f.22 Flagellation of Christ with the Crowning with Thorns visible in an antechamber, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and berries and two butterflies
f.23 Carrying of the Cross, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and two butterflies
f.24v Crucifixion, Christ on the Cross between the two thieves, the Virgin, Magdalene and St John lamenting on the left and Longinus on horseback indicating the Son of God on the right, all within an architectural frame that includes a statue of a standing saint, on the facing page a border of strewn flowers and fruit with a snail, moth and butterfly
f.26 Deposition from the Cross, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided border with strewn flowers and three butterflies
f.27 Entombment, a bas-de-page miniature, with a three-sided architectural border with jewels, strings of beads and a statue of a martyr saint in a vaulted niche
f.29v Lamentation over the body of Christ in half-length, St John supporting the corpse with the Virgin standing beside him, the Magdalene kneeling by him and anointing the wound in Christ's hand
f.30 three-quarter-length figure of a young woman in Italian dress, her hair braided in a coazzone, kneeling at a prie-dieu in a colonnaded loggia, a Flemish town in the background, the miniature and text below treated as though on a screen held by two putti in front of an italianate baldacchino and renaissance profile medallions, two putti at the bottom of the border holding a coat of arms
f.32v Pentecost in half-length, an architectural border with the miniature framed within one bay of a circular arcade surrounding a hexagonal fountain or font, on the facing page an architectural border with standing figures of saints and in the bas-de-page the Dove of the Holy Spirit with a banderole
f.40v Virgin and Child in half-length, the Virgin offering her breast to the naked infant who is supported on a cushion, a border with pendant golden jewels and pearls against a blue background, on the facing page a border of strewn flowers with butterflies
f.46 John the Evangelist on Patmos (small miniature) with a shoreside city in the distance and the vision of the red dragon with seven heads in the sky, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.47v St Luke in an interior (small miniature), seated at a desk beneath his portrait of the Virgin and Child, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.49v St Matthew in an interior (small miniature), writing at his desk watched by his angel symbol, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.51v St Mark in an interior (small miniature), writing at his desk with his lion at his side, with a three-sided border of strewn flowers
f.53v Annunciation, half-length figures of Gabriel and the Virgin against a golden ground, a small figure of God in an aureole above, all framed by a golden border with a pot of lilies, a spray of roses without thorns, flies and butterfly, a matching border on the facing page
f.75v Visitation, half-length figures of the Virgin and St Elizabeth in a country setting, framed within an embrasure with mouldings and engaged columns, niches with statues to one side and a base with coloured oculi below, on the facing page an architectural border with figures of saints and a complex, coloured base
f.89v Nativity, half-length figures of the Virgin and Joseph adoring the naked Christ Child in a manger, the ox and ass behind them, strewn border with flowers, fruit and insects, a similar border on the facing page
f.95v Annunciation to the Shepherds, half-length figures of two shepherds, regarding and indicating an angel in the sky, the landscape behind them with buildings and a windmill, in an architectural frame with a statue in a niche, on the facing page an architectural frame with window-sill and wainscotting holding a vase of flowers and a coat of arms
f.101v Adoration of the Magi in half-length, strewn border with flowers and insects, a matching border on the facing recto
f.107v Presentation in the Temple in half-length, Simeon holding the Christ Child above an altar, the Virgin holding two doves, Joseph and Anna behind her, all beneath a green curtain within a gothic interior, the miniature within an architectural frame with two statues in niches and a coat of arms, an architectural border on the facing recto
f.113v Massacre of the Innocents in half-length, in the foreground a woman attempting to fend off a soldier with raised sword who holds her infant's leg, in the middle distance another soldier strikes at a woman and child, within a border strewn wih strawberries, birds and insects, a similar border on the facing recto
f.122v Flight into Egypt in half-length, Joseph leading the ass with the Virgin and Child through a landscape, within an architectural frame with a view into a room with an altar, an architectural frame with two statues on the facing recto
f.129v Coronation of the Virgin in half-length, on the left a youthful God wearing a closed crown blesses the kneeling, praying figure of the Virgin, a crown and the Dove of the Holy Spirit hover above her head, within a border strewn with flowers and butterflies, a similar border on the facing recto
f.141v Virgin and Child in half-length, the Virgin cradling in her arms the naked Christ Child who holds cherries, within an architectural frame with niches holding figures of music-making angels, and facing
f.142 three-quarter-length figure of a young woman in Italian dress kneeling before a prie-dieu praying, her Book of Hours open at the image of the Virgin and Child, set in an arcaded loggia, within an architectural border with a coat of arms
f.143 Initial O with the Pietà in camïeu d'or, accompanied by a full border with niches with statues
f.147v three-quarter-length figures of the Virgin and Evangelist at the foot of the cross (small miniature), with a three-sided border strewn with flowers and moths
f.151 Mass of St Gregory (small miniature), three-sided border strewn with flowers
f.153 St Michael weighing a soul (small miniature), full border with a kneeling figure of a young woman praying towards the miniature and containing two coats of arms, one supported by two putti
f.154 John the Baptist with the Agnus Dei in a landscape (small miniature), three-sided border strewn with flowers
f.155 St John the Evangelist standing outside a town (small miniature), three-sided border with jewels
f.156 Sts Peter and Paul standing, in the background a large rotunda (small miniature), three-sided border strewn with flowers, a papal tiara and the crossed keys of St Peter in the upper border and two chubby putti supporting a wreath containing a shield charged with a horse's skull
f.157 St James sitting sleeping on an isle with a great city on the shore behind him (small miniature), three-sided border with cockleshells, crossed staffs and a pilgrim's bag interspersed with scattered flowers
f.158 St Anthony seated at prayer accompanied by his pig (small miniature), three-sided border with bells and letters tau, with jewels and swags in the lower border
f.159 St Sebastian tied to a column, archers behind him taking aim (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn acanthus and flowers
f.160v St Nicholas seated before a cloth of honour that partly obscures the boys in a tub (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn flowers
f.161v St Anne seated beside the Virgin and Child outside a town (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn acanthus and flowers
f.162v Mary Magdalene standing three-quarter-length in a Netherlandish street (small miniature), three-sided border with martyrs' palms and ceramic pots, swags and a coat of arms in the lower border
f.163v St Catherine seated three-quarter-length in a landscape, a book and sword on her lap and a torture wheel leaning against a building behind her (small miniature), three-sided border with swords and wheels and two cavorting putti with swags in the lower border
f.164v St Barbara seated three-quarter-length against a window embrasure, the landscape behind her containing a tower (small miniature), three-sided border with strewn flowers
f.166v David in Prayer in half-length, with his harp tucked under his arm raising his hands towards the bust of God the Father in the sky, a large romanesque palace and church in the background, within a border strewn with flowers, butterflies and birds, a similar border on the facing recto
f.190v Raising of Lazarus in half-length, Jesus in the foreground blessing the pallid risen corpse, the Magdalene immediately behind gesturing to Christ, five other spectators looking on, within an architectural frame containing a hanging string of beads at the side and a pool with two swans at the foot, on the facing recto an architectural border with two niches with figures
f.239 Trinity, with God the Father enthroned, holding the the body of the dead Christ, the dove of the Holy Spirit hovering above (small miniature), three-sided border with bust-length Trinity and banderoles