The Entombment of Christ, historiated initial on a leaf from the Hours of Catherina van Wassenaer, in Latin [northern Netherlands, c.1490-1500]

single leaf, 140x110mm, vellum, with an initial 'C' and a three-sided border for Compline in the Hours of the Virgin, 17 lines, 85x64mm, illuminated initials, the initials 'J' and 'I' joined by a knot in upper margin, slight rubbing of border, edges slightly darkened from framing

PROVENANCE

(1) Probably made for Jan van Wassenaer, lord of Voorscoten and Katwijk, councillor of Charles the Bold, and Iohanne van Halewijn (their initials in the upper margin). (2) Probably given in 1514 to their daughter Catherina van Wassenaer (d. 1538) on the occasion of her marriage to Joost van Cruyningen (d. 1543), councillor and chamberlain of Emperor Charles V; part of the manuscript was in the library of the Dukes of Arenburg, and was sold in our rooms, 25 June 1985, lot 108; bought by Leiden University (BPL 3091). (3) A separate 22-leaf portion, including the present leaf, belonged to Frans Claes of Antwerp; it was sold in 1933, and again in our rooms, 10 July 1972, lot 37; single leaves have been offered in Ferrini, Catalogue 1, 1987, nos.108-109, and in our rooms, 18 June 1991, lot 39 (ill.).

This handsome leaf can be attributed to the MASTER OF CORNELIS CROESINCK; see The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 1989, no.101. The Leiden part is described by K.H. Broekhuijsen in her The Masters of the Dark Eyes, 2009, no.35, and the ex-Claes part analysed in her 'The Reconstruction of the Book of Hours of Catharina van Wassenaer', Quaerendo, 33 (2003), pp.54-76, reproducing the present leaf  ('location unknown') as fig.6.