The Crucifixion, very large miniature from the Missal of Jan de Broedere, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Flanders (perhaps Grammont, possibly Brussels), c.1510-20 (after 1506)]

single leaf, 223mm. by 335mm., with a large arch-topped miniature within a brown frame heightened with liquid gold, all within full decorated border with a realistic peacock, a butterfly, a fly, a caterpillar and sprays of foliage and fruit on dull-gold grounds, four red roundels with the attributes of the Evangelists holding scrolls with their names at corners and an ornate liquid gold cross in a blue roundel in the bas-de-page, some flaking from edge of frame and small smudges, roughly cut down inner edge (but with no damage to miniature or text), else excellent condition, framed

provenance

Once the Canon miniature of the summer volume of the Missal of Jan de Broedere, the abbot of Grammont (held office 1506-26), in eastern Flanders, who commissioned the great Adoration of the Magi altarpiece by Jan Gossaert (d.1523) for the Lady Chapel at Grammont, now in the National Gallery in London (NG2790), in which the kneeling figure of Caspar is assumed to be a portrait of de Broedere himself. The parent volume was in the collection of Beriah Botfield (1807-1863), bought from Thomas Thorpe, Catalogue part ii, 1830, no.7223; and passed to the Marquesses of Bath at Longleat; their sale at Christie's, 13 June 2002, lot 3, appearing most recently in Les Enluminures 1991-2011 ('20 Now'), no.8. The companion winter volume was owned by William Euing (1788-1874), and gifted to Glasgow University Library (now MS. Euing 29). This grand miniature was removed from the summer volume, along with others, probably before 1830, and reappeared in our rooms, 10 December 1969, lot 8, illustrated. It was sold to Francis Edwards for £350, and was acquired from them by the present owner.

text

This is the leaf wanting from the summer volume after fol.93r, at the opening of the Canon of the Mass, completing the previous text with the three lines on its verso: "...eidem contulisti preesse pastores. Et ideo cum angelis", with music on a 4-line stave. In the blank space below, a contemporary hand has added a supplication emphasising the resisting of the nations of pagans and heretics by the Pope, his princes and their peoples (the heretics perhaps the followers of Martin Luther, whose Ninety-Five Theses were condemned by the papal bull Exsurge Domine in June 1520 following Johann Eck's public burning of Luther's work). It may have been added by the request of Jan de Broedere himself.

illumination

This miniature is by the same illuminators as the Glasgow volume (and is the near-identical twin of the miniature on fol.70v of that volume: cf. The Glory of the Page: Medieval Manuscripts from Glasgow University Library, 1987, p.192), identified as the Masters of Raphael de Mercatellis, who worked for de Mercatellis, the famous bibliophilic son of Duke Philip of Burgundy and abbot of St. Bavo's, Ghent (cf. A. Derolez, The Library of Raphael de Marcatellis, 1979, no.50). The same distinctively bright palette and complex compositions with multiple scenes and tiny background details are probably also to be detected in two Books of Hours (Brussels, Bib. Royale, MS II, 460, and that sold Christie's, 24 June 1992, lot 62).