The Crucifixion, large full-page miniature from a Missal, in Latin [France (Paris), c.1540s]

single leaf, 258x155mm, vellum, with a miniature for the Canon of the Mass, 5 lines of text and music on four-line red staves, rastrum 17mm, cut to shape, upper corners of frame slightly affected by water damage, illumination with small pigment losses, overall in good condition

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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This miniature is a splendid example of French Renaissance manuscript illumination. The late Myra Dickman Orth (d.2002), who was a leading specialist for French Renaissance illumination, is reported to have said that this miniature was painted by an illuminator related in style to the Master of François de Rohan and his circle active during the reign of King Francis I (1515-47). This group of painters, commonly known as the 1520s Hours workshop (mainly responsible for Books of Hours produced in the 1520s), has recently been linked to Jean Bellemare who migrated from Antwerp to Paris in around 1515 (M. Leproux, La peinture à Paris sous le règne de François 1er, 2001). Bellemare’s only surviving documented work, the southern rose-window of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, has close parallels with one of the workshop’s leading artists, the Master of the Getty Epistles (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ludwig I 15). The Bellemare group introduced Antwerp Mannerism into France, a style exemplified by muscular figures, dynamic postures, striking spatial effects, and vibrant colour combinations, as in the present example. The Master of François de Rohan, named after a copy of François de Rohan's 1530 translation of the Fleur de Vertu (Paris, BnF, fr. 1877), was studied in detail by Orth (‘The Master of François de Rohan’, in Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters, 1998, pp.69-91). His style differs somewhat from the prevailing Parisian style that is indebted to the Bellemare group, and although the known activity of the François de Rohan Master is securely based in Paris, his style may have its roots in German or Swiss art, as it is closely related to early sixteenth-century prints from Basel. Perhaps it is the foreign character of the present miniature that led Orth to relate its artist to the Master of François de Rohan. The artist’s restless brush sets the turbulently muscular body of Christ against a broad landscape under a threatening sky which opens up into celestial light, while the mantles of Mary and John are tossed by a mystical gust of wind and their hands splay in a paroxysm of grief. Characteristic of this illuminator are the heavy figures in billowy draperies with notably small and fine heads. The elegant cartouche below the miniature includes a cross and indicates that this miniature was part of a Missal, where such crosses appear in order to be kissed by the priest during Mass.