Mary Magdalene adoring the Crown of Thorns, illuminated initial from a choirbook, [France, early 16th century]

Mary Magdalene Adoring the Cross and Crown of Thorns

illuminated initial cut from a manuscript Choirbook in Latin on vellum. [France (Paris?), 16th century (1st half)]

One cutting, c.130×150mm, the initial ‘G’ probably from the antiphon ‘Gloria patri et filio’ for the feast of Mary Magdalene (22 July), the reverse with text in very formal gothic script and music in square notation on four-line red staves, comprising part of the feast of St Anne (26 July) (‘[sollemnita]te gaudent / [ange]li et col[laudant]’), the face of one angel smudged, and with a little surface wear, but the pigments and burnished gold still bright.

PROVENANCE

This cutting has been offered by Sotheby’s three times in the past 35 years: 5 December 1989, lot 47; 10 December 1996, lot 26; and 7 December 1999, lot 10a (with a large reproduction). In all three it was suggested that it might come from a choirbook of the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, which owned a relic of the Crown of Thorns, which seems to be given exceptional prominence in the composition.

In 1996 it was compared to the De Thou Gradual (‘with extremely similar illumination’) commissioned in 1536 for the church of Saint-André-des-Arts, Paris (on the left bank, a few minutes’ walk from the Sainte-Chapelle).