Agony in the Garden, miniature from a Book of Hours, in Latin [France (Paris), c.1510-20]

cutting, 150x90mm, vellum, miniature for the Passion of Christ according to St John, 33 lines, 110x48mm, verso with full border made of ropes knotted at bottom, cut to shape and re-margined, cockled, a few minuscule holes along fine crack affecting only the text panel, retouched in the 19th century by Caleb William Wing, framed

This miniature is an exceptionally fine work by the MASTER OF MORGAN 85 who may be identified as Jean Pichore (C. Zöhl, Jean Pichore, 2004). The elongated format of the manuscript and the precise humanistic script are representative of the achievements of the High Renaissance in France. The cutting comes from a Book of Hours that belonged to John Boykett Jarman (c.1781-1864); it was seriously damaged in the freak hailstorm that flooded his collection on 1 August 1846 (see J.M. Backhouse in British Museum Quarterly, XXXII, 1968, pp.76-92). It was repaired and re-margined by Caleb William Wing (1801-75) who was first employed by Jarman to retouch minor areas of his manuscripts that were water-damaged. The Book of Hours to which this leaf belonged was sold at Jarman’s sale in our rooms, 13 June 1864, lot 30. The complete manuscript was offered by Maggs, Cat.397, 1920, no.198, and was broken up shortly afterwards. Single leaves were in Maggs, Cat.437, 1923, nos.1137-8, 1142-5, 1150-3, 1155, 1157-8, and 1163. This miniature was no.1150 and acquired from there (clipping on back of frame); thence by descent. Three other miniatures from the 1923 catalogue were sold in our rooms: the Annunciation to the Shepherds, 11 April 1961, lot 88b, now Dunedin Public Library (M. Manion and C. de Hamel, Manuscripts in New Zealand, 1989, no.98); David and Bathsheba, 14 July 1981, lot 55; and Pentecost, 11 December 1984, lot 21. A text leaf is in McGill University Library (MS 110; S. de Ricci, Census, p.2213), other text leaves were in the collection of C.L. Ricketts of Chicago in 1922, and re-offered in Maggs, Bulletin 6, 1969, no.10; Bulletin 7, 1971, nos.24-6; and Bulletin 10, 1979, no.43.