![A PRIEST RENOUNCING HIS BENEFICE, miniature on a bifolium from a glossed Decretum Gratiani, manuscript on vellum illuminated by the Master Honoré [Paris, c.1290-95].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10457_0008_000(a_priest_renouncing_his_benefice_miniature_on_a_bifolium_from_a_glosse100648).jpg?w=1)
細節
A PRIEST RENOUNCING HIS BENEFICE, miniature on a bifolium from a glossed Decretum Gratiani, manuscript on vellum illuminated by the Maître Honoré [Paris, c.1290-95].
470 x 289mm; the miniature 60 x 79mm. Initials in blue with red penwork throughout, smaller initials and rubrics in red, headings in red and blue. The miniature opens Causa XVII of Gratian’s Decretum, with the gloss of Bartolomeo of Brescia; the rest of the bifolium contains the text of Causa XVI (some light marginal staining, remnants of adhesive on the reverse). Provenance: (1) The parent manuscript is a volume of Gratian’s Concordantia Discordantium in the Statni Archiv in Olomouc in the Czech Republic (ms. no. C.D. 39, published by A. Melnikas, The Corpus of Miniatures in the Manuscripts of Decretum Gratiani, 1975). Another bifolium from the same manuscript (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no 1990.217) belonged to Sir Sydney Cockerell and was published by E.G. Millar (An Illuminated MS. of La Somme Le Roy, Roxburghe Club, 1953, p.12 and The Parisian Miniaturist Honoré, 1959, p.14). It then passed to B.S. Cron (Handlist, 1965, p.12) and to John Feldman (de Hamel, British Journal, XIII, 1987, p.202, no 61), who suggested that the intact manuscript could have been made for WENCESLAUS II, KING OF BOHEMIA (1278-1305), who in 1292 sent Cistercian emissaries to Paris to purchase manuscripts for the foundation of a monastery. The book would have remained in Bohemia ever since. The loss of the present leaves was noted by J. Kejr, Studia Gratiana, VIII, 1962, pp.51-2. (2) FRANZ TRAU: his sale, Vienna, 27 October 1905, lot 92. (3) LUDWIG ROSENTHAL: his cat.1914, no 478. (3) GEORG SWARENSKI: no 55 in his Die Illuminierten Handschriften Einzelminiaturen in Frankfurter Besitz, with R. Schilling, 1929, p.59 and pl. XXVIII; exhibited at Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Arts of the Middle Ages, 1940, p.14, no 39. (4) ERIC KORNER (d.1980): his sale at Sotheby’s, 19 June 1990, lot 7.
AN EXQUISITE MINIATURE BY ONE OF THE GREATEST FIGURES IN FRENCH BOOK PAINTING. Born in Amiens and in the employ of Philip the Fair from 1288, Maître Honoré was deeply influential in the evolution of late 13th- and early 14th-century French manuscript illumination. The expressive and sculptural modelling of his figures, the rendering of the features by a few elegant penstrokes and the three-dimensional manner in which he captures the light as it plays on the bodies and robes – all hallmarks of his style – are evident in the present miniature. There is only one documented manuscript by Honoré: another copy of Gratian’s Decretals, now Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 588. And only a handful of manuscripts can be confidently attributed to Honoré and his circle: among these (in addition to the Olomouc manuscript) are a Gospel Lectionary, British Library, add. ms. 17341; The Breviary of Philip the Good, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 1023; Somme le Roy, British Library, Add. ms. 541806; the Bible of Jean de Papeleu, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, ms. 5059 and two leaves at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Ms. 192 et Ms. 368). The present miniature is an exceptional example of his work, and of the best Parisian illumination at the turn of the 14th century.
470 x 289mm; the miniature 60 x 79mm. Initials in blue with red penwork throughout, smaller initials and rubrics in red, headings in red and blue. The miniature opens Causa XVII of Gratian’s Decretum, with the gloss of Bartolomeo of Brescia; the rest of the bifolium contains the text of Causa XVI (some light marginal staining, remnants of adhesive on the reverse). Provenance: (1) The parent manuscript is a volume of Gratian’s Concordantia Discordantium in the Statni Archiv in Olomouc in the Czech Republic (ms. no. C.D. 39, published by A. Melnikas, The Corpus of Miniatures in the Manuscripts of Decretum Gratiani, 1975). Another bifolium from the same manuscript (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no 1990.217) belonged to Sir Sydney Cockerell and was published by E.G. Millar (An Illuminated MS. of La Somme Le Roy, Roxburghe Club, 1953, p.12 and The Parisian Miniaturist Honoré, 1959, p.14). It then passed to B.S. Cron (Handlist, 1965, p.12) and to John Feldman (de Hamel, British Journal, XIII, 1987, p.202, no 61), who suggested that the intact manuscript could have been made for WENCESLAUS II, KING OF BOHEMIA (1278-1305), who in 1292 sent Cistercian emissaries to Paris to purchase manuscripts for the foundation of a monastery. The book would have remained in Bohemia ever since. The loss of the present leaves was noted by J. Kejr, Studia Gratiana, VIII, 1962, pp.51-2. (2) FRANZ TRAU: his sale, Vienna, 27 October 1905, lot 92. (3) LUDWIG ROSENTHAL: his cat.1914, no 478. (3) GEORG SWARENSKI: no 55 in his Die Illuminierten Handschriften Einzelminiaturen in Frankfurter Besitz, with R. Schilling, 1929, p.59 and pl. XXVIII; exhibited at Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Arts of the Middle Ages, 1940, p.14, no 39. (4) ERIC KORNER (d.1980): his sale at Sotheby’s, 19 June 1990, lot 7.
AN EXQUISITE MINIATURE BY ONE OF THE GREATEST FIGURES IN FRENCH BOOK PAINTING. Born in Amiens and in the employ of Philip the Fair from 1288, Maître Honoré was deeply influential in the evolution of late 13th- and early 14th-century French manuscript illumination. The expressive and sculptural modelling of his figures, the rendering of the features by a few elegant penstrokes and the three-dimensional manner in which he captures the light as it plays on the bodies and robes – all hallmarks of his style – are evident in the present miniature. There is only one documented manuscript by Honoré: another copy of Gratian’s Decretals, now Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 588. And only a handful of manuscripts can be confidently attributed to Honoré and his circle: among these (in addition to the Olomouc manuscript) are a Gospel Lectionary, British Library, add. ms. 17341; The Breviary of Philip the Good, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 1023; Somme le Roy, British Library, Add. ms. 541806; the Bible of Jean de Papeleu, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, ms. 5059 and two leaves at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Ms. 192 et Ms. 368). The present miniature is an exceptional example of his work, and of the best Parisian illumination at the turn of the 14th century.
榮譽呈獻
Eugenio Donadoni