The Crucifixion, very large miniature from a Missal, on vellum [Austria (most probably Salzburg), c.1470-90]

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

single leaf, 330mm. by 255mm. (plus 12mm. stub along right-hand edge), with a very large miniature from the opening of the Canon of the Mass, in a blue frame with red and yellow borders, decorated with small six-petalled flowers in liquid gold (which resemble contemporary binding tool-marks, cf. Kyriss, Verzierte Gotische Einbände, II, 1956, pls.185, 191, 203, 218 and 347), scrolling decoration incised into surface of blue borders, four roundels in the corners in brightly burnished gold with green borders, the outer edges of the frame and the roundels further decorated with red pen-flourishing (now somewhat faded), folded leather ‘book-mark’ tag glued to middle of outer border, parts of faces of Christ and St. John slightly rubbed, blue cloak of Virgin and frame with small smudges, else good condition, the recto blank

Catalogue Note

illumination

This miniature is an unrecorded example of the output of a Salzburg workshop, known for its production of de luxe illuminated Missals in the late fifteenth century. Their collective style was first identified by Eichler in 1940 (‘Eine Salzburger Missalienwerkstatt des späten 15. Jahrhunderts’, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, XV, 1940, pp.163-8), and has since been considerably extended and presented in an exhibition on Late Gothic Painting in Salzburg in 1972 (Spätgotik in Salzburg. Die Malerei 1400-1530, pp.246-57). Characteristic for the workshop is the burnished gold ground punched with little flowers, and the heavy figures, the detailed structure of the wooden cross and the sparsely indicated green ground also match many other examples in the group. The small rosy faces and the curly yellow locks of St. John are specific to the illuminator of this leaf, and reveal a rather refined hand within a group of varying quality.