CHRIST PRESENTS THE MISSION TO ST PETER in a historiated initial cut from an illuminated Dominican(?) Antiphonary(?), in Latin, manuscript on vellum. [Germany (Cologne), 14th century (2nd? quarter)]

CHRIST PRESENTS THE MISSION TO ST PETER in a historiated initial cut from an illuminated Dominican(?) Antiphonary(?), in Latin, manuscript on vellum

[Germany (Cologne), 14th century (2nd? quarter)]

a cutting, c. 90 × 105mm, cropped to the contours of the frame around the initial ‘E’, the reverse with fragments of text and music in square notation on two four-line red staves, the rastrum 25mm, the text (‘[propt]er filium homi[nis gaudete et exsultate] ecce enim merces’) from the antiphon ‘Beati eritis cum vos oderint homines’ for the Common of the Apostles, the initial therefore doubtless from the antiphon ‘Ecce ego mitto vos sicut oves in medio luporum’ (Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves), depicting Christ making a gesture of instruction and giving a book to St Peter, behind whom stands St Paul and two other apostles, all within a gothic architectural frame with crockets; in very fine condition with only very minor imperfections; framed.

PROVENANCE

1.   Constantin Raderschatt (d. before 1886), collector of early prints and drawings, of Cologne: his sale by Heberle, 24–26 January 1887, lot 650.

2.   Mortimer Brandt (1905–1993), Old Master paintings and drawings dealer, of New York: probably acquired between June 1962 and 1966; his inventory no. 1424 (Bober, 1966, no. 2); Roger Wieck records how his collection of illuminations toured to at least fifteen exhibition venues from 1964 to 1986 (Wieck, 1996, at p. 249); placed on deposit at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, until sold in 1988 to:

3.   Sam Fogg and Bruce Ferrini

4.   Sold at Christie’s, 26 June 1991, lot 5 (front cover col. ill.); bought by:

5.   The Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 1300.

This is one of the finest initials from a group of cuttings and leaves extracted from choirbooks made for Franciscan and Dominican houses in Cologne in the early 14th century, which have attracted attention from art historians for more than sixty years (e.g. Knaus, 1960; Oliver, 1978; Benecke, 1995; Gummlich-Wagner, 2005; Kidd, 2019). These choirbooks were illuminated by followers of Johannes von Valkenburg, who wrote the text, supplied the music, and illuminated two Franciscan graduals, which he signed and dated 1299 (Cologne, Diözesan- und Dombibliothek, MS 1B, and Bonn, Universitätsbibliothek, MS 384). Several of them seem certain to have been made for the Franciscan convent of St Clare, founded in Cologne in 1304. They are characterised by elegant figures against patterned backgrounds set under crocketted architectural features, often illuminated in silver, and with a palette combining bright enamel-like reds and blues with much softer, more muted colours. The style either influenced, or was influenced by, Cologne stained-glass painting of the same period.

Several leaves and cuttings from the group are in the McCarthy collection (Kidd, 2019, cat. nos. 50–53), including two that are apparently from the same Antiphonary, which was probably Dominican, as suggested by the fact that the feast of St Peter Martyr is treated as a major feast (cat. no. 53). Another of the McCarthy cuttings (cat. no. 51) has the same subject and the same text as the present one, although it is somewhat earlier in date and the iconography is different, with Christ seated, and is doubtless from a Franciscan manuscript, because there is a praying Franciscan in the adjacent margin.

REFERENCES

J.M. Heberle, Cologne, Catalog der graphischen Sammlungen aus dem Nachlasse des Herrn Constantin Raderschatt zu Köln: Pergamentmanuscripte … Miniaturen … etc.; Versteigerung zu Köln, 24–26 January 1887.

H. Knaus, ‘Johann von Valkenburg und seine Nachfolger: Zur Kölner Buchmalerei der frühen Gotik’, Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 19 (1960), 457–66 (reprinted in Knaus, Studien zur Handschriftenkunde, 1991, pp. 35–50).

H. Bober, The Mortimer Brandt Collection of Medieval Manuscript Illuminations ([New York?], 1966) no. 2.

J. Oliver, ‘The Mosan Origins of Johannes von Valke’, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, 40 (1978), pp. 23–37.

S. Benecke, Randgestaltung und Religiosität: Die Handschriften aus dem Kölner Kloster St. Klara (Ammersbek bei Hamburg, 1995).

R.S. Wieck, ‘Folia Fugitiva: The Pursuit of the Illuminated Manuscript Leaf’, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 54 (1996), pp. 233–54.

J.C. Gummlich-Wagner, ‘Buchmalerei aus dem Kölner Minoritenskriptorium: Das Valkenburg-Graduale (Cod. 1001b der Diözesan- und Dombibliothek Köln) und sein Umfeld’, in Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Kölner Dombibliothek, ed. by H. Finger (Cologne, 2005), pp. 286–338.

P. Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, II: Spanish, English, Flemish, and Central European Miniatures (London, 2019), referring to the present cutting at p. 208 (‘Private Collection, Switzerland’) and reproducing it at p. 210 fig. 53.2 (with incorrect caption).