Simon Bening

This is one of a group of four miniatures illuminated by the 16^th-century Flemish master Simon Bening that were (like the two grand head studies attributed to Boltraffio, lots 7 and 8 in the present sale) formerly in the illustrious collection of Bernard H. Breslauer.¹ The four miniatures most likely came from a Book of Hours. The present depiction of the Annunciation to the Shepherds would have appeared in the Hours of the Virgin, along with the images of the Visitation and the Flight into Egypt, while the fourth miniature, representing the Pentecost would have been placed at the beginning of the Hours of the Holy Spirit. It is not, however, known from which Book of Hours these fine miniatures originate. 

Three of the four miniatures in this group, including the present one, feature sensitively rendered, very naturalistic landscapes. The tree on the right, flanking and framing the foreground narrative, is counterbalanced by the distant wooded hill in the left background, which in turn serves as a backdrop for the peacefully grazing flock of sheep, seen in the middle ground. As Thomas Kren has observed, writing of Bening’s late Flemish Calendar, now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, the artist’s landscapes after 1530 are characterised by a velvety texture and a heightened sense of atmosphere.² At the same time, Bening reduced the relative sizes of his figures, and the landscapes became more important. The Breslauer miniatures typify Bening’s new approach to illumination in the later years of his career, and share the depth and painterly softness of those in the Munich Calendar, which dates to about 1540; this miniature probably dates from around the same time, or shortly before.

Simon Bening occupies a unique position in the story of early Flemish painting, bridging generations and media alike, and creating highly distinctive works that set the scene for future developments in the field of Flemish landscape painting. It is typical that the composition of the present miniature harks directly back to one created by Bening’s father, Alexander Bening (d. 1519), in around 1495-1500,³ yet reframes the subject in an entirely new way. The positions of the two shepherds and of the angel are almost identical in the miniatures of father and son, but the placement of the figures within the landscape has been dramatically altered. 

As Georges Dogaer wrote: ‘Bening’s miniatures differ in appearance from those painted by his contemporaries… In his scenes the compact but lively figures always enact their roles naturally. His compositions are soundly structured, their space is well organised and the colouring is unusually brilliant. He occupies a distinguished position in the history of landscape painting. With him Flemish, and especially Bruges miniature painting of the first half of the sixteenth century, reached its apogee.’⁴

Yet even to categorise Simon Bening as a Bruges miniature painter is to downplay his originality, and legacy. A work such as his Virgo inter virgines…, a large-scale (280 by 190 mm) ‘miniature’ painted on vellum laid down on panel, is in fact a major independent work of early Flemish painting, which stands shoulder to shoulder with the productions of painters like Gerard David, Hugo van der Goes and Adriaen Isenbrandt (as was reflected in the record price achieved when this work was recently sold⁵). Though less ambitious in scale, the present work exhibits just the same quality of technique and innovative approach.

1. Voelkle and Wieck, op. cit., nos. 23-26 (the present miniature no. 24)

2. T. Kren, Simon Bening: Flemish Calendar, (facsimile edition) Lucerne, 1988

3. The Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic; Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1963.256, f.131v

4.  G. Dogaer, Flemish Miniature Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries, Amsterdam, 1987, p. 172

5. Sale, London, Sotheby’s, 1 December 2020, lot 74, £1,467,000