The Crucifixion, miniature from an illuminated Missal, on vellum [Southern Netherlands (Ghent or Bruges), c.1500-20]

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

single leaf, 350mm. by 235mm., with a vast arch-topped miniature from the opening of the Canon of the Mass, in a gold frame, within a full border with strewn flowers and acanthus branches, with a fly, a butterfly, a snail and a small dog chasing a rabbit on an ochre ground, with a coat-of-arms (see below) in the outer margin and an ornate blue cross in a gold roundel in the lower margin, slightly rubbed, small smudges in lower margin, else in good condition, the recto blank

Provenance

1. Made in Ghent or Bruges for the wealthy Netherlandish patron whose coat-of-arms (parted per fess gules and argent, a lion rampant in chief with a small flower gules in lower part) hangs realistically from the acanthus-leaf foliage in the border.

2. Jacques Auguste Boussac (1885-1962), Parisian industrialist and collector of drawings, miniatures and paintings; his small black monogram ink-stamp with the initials ‘BD’ in lower right corner (Lugt, no. L.729b). His collection was dispersed in sales in Paris in 1924, 1926 and 1931. Only the second sale was auctioned under his name, and only this part was stamped with the initials ‘B’ for Boussac and ‘D’, for Dumaine, his wife’s maiden name: Georges Petit, Catalogue des dessins et aquarelles des écoles françaises & etrangères du XVe au XIXe siècles [et] enluminures: composant la collection de M. J. Boussac, Paris, 10-11 May 1926, the present leaf as lot 46 (full-page illustration).

Catalogue Note

illumination

The style of the miniature is loosely connected to that of the Masters of Raphael de Mercatellis (Dogaer, Flemish Miniature Painting, 1987, pp.150-5), a number of anonymous miniaturists, probably from different workshops from Ghent and Bruges, who were employed by Raphael de Mercatellis, the son of Duke Philip of Burgundy, and abbot of St. Bavo’s, Ghent, from 1478 until his death in 1508. Set against the bleak and sombre landscape, which includes a detailed city view, this composition includes tiny details such as the softly modelled grey lips of Christ’s dead body and the tear-stained faces of the Virgin and St. John which convey a subtle sense for capturing emotion.