The Ascension of Christ, very large historiated initial on a leaf from an illuminated manuscript Gradual in Latin on vellum

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

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Description

a single leaf, 610mm. by 387mm., with a very large initial ‘V’ (“Viri galilei …”, introit for Ascension Sunday), 173mm. by 175mm., showing the Virgin Mary with the apostles kneeling around a small green hill imprinted with the feet of Christ who is disappearing upwards at the top of the miniature, within an initial in flamboyant leafy design on a burnished gold ground within a faceted border, all on a full leaf with 9 lines of text and of music on a 5-line red stave, written-space 505mm. by 295mm., written in a very fine gothic liturgical hand, text partly written in alternate lines of red and blue, music partly in burnished gold and silver neumes, full-length illuminated border of scrolling flowers and leaves in colours (mainly greens) and burnished gold, recto (for the miniature is on the original verso) including a large initial ‘P’ enclosing the face of a man singing, contemporary foliation ‘xiiii’ in red, slight wear and rubbing, silver oxidised, extremities of border fractionally cropped, finely framed

Catalogue Note

Boehlen Collection, MS. 1505 ES.

This is one of three known leaves from a late gothic Bohemian Gradual of remarkable quality and originality, almost certainly illuminated by Joannes Zmilely de Pisek. This and its sister leaves belong among a group of royal choirbooks, including the Wladislaus Gradual in Esztergom, presumably made for the chapel in Budapest of King Wladislaus II, king of Hungary, in succession to Matthias Corvinus (cf. J. Krása, Ceské iluminované rukopisy 13./16. století, 1990, figs. 183-89). The Esztergom volume (Föszékesegyházi Könyvtár, MS. I.3) and the present leaf have virtually identical measurements and are almost certainly part of the same set of royal manuscripts. The writing of the text in alternate lines of red and blue and of the music in alternate lines of gold and silver are consistent with a commission of the highest luxury. The Wladislaus Gradual in Esztergom is ascribed to Joannes (or Janicek) Zmilely de Pisek, regarded as the finest Bohemian illuminator of his day, and to his workshop (cf. I. Berkovits, ‘Az Esztergomi Ulászló-Graduale’, Magyar Könyvszemle, LXV, 1941, pp.342-53, and B. Palota, Kódexek a középkori Magyarországon, 1985, no.180 and pls.87-8).

Another leaf from the same manuscript belonged to the late Bernard Breslauer; cf. W.M. Voelkle and R.S. Wieck, The Bernard H. Breslauer Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, 1992, pp.144-47, no.47, citing the present leaf and illustrating it with a full-page plate, p.147, fig.6, a “New York, private collection”. The iconography of the Breslauer leaf was copied from a woodcut in Fridolin’s Schatzbehalter, Koberger, Nuremberg, 1491, a terminus post quem for the manuscript. However, the Ascension is not a scene which occurs in the Schatzbehalter and the engaging composition here may be original to the artist.