FULL-PAGE MINIATURE WITH FOUR SCENES FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, from a Psalter, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France (Paris), 14th century (2nd quarter, c. 1340)]

FULL-PAGE MINIATURE WITH FOUR SCENES FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, from a Psalter, illuminated manuscript on vellum

[France (Paris), 14th century (2nd quarter, c. 1340)]

a single leaf, c. 190 × 140mm, the miniature divided by architectural frames into four compartments: (a) a group of six apostles addressing three Jewish wearing pointed hats, the foremost holding a scroll identifying themselves: ‘nous sommes iuys’ (Acts 2:5–6); (b) Sts Peter and John curing the lame man at the gate of the temple (Acts 3:2–7); (c) an apostle baptising four naked figures in a large font, watched by another disciple; and (d) two apostles preaching to a group of five seated men (Acts 3:12), each scene against a different background of gold or diaper patterns; trimmed to the edge of the illumination, the verso blank, generally in very fine condition; framed and glazed.

PROVENANCE

1. The parent manuscript was a Psalter produced in Paris c. 1340; it must have been broken-up by 1833 because a miniature was owned by Richard Heber, who died in that year (Pächt & Alexander, 1966, no. 604).
2. Gerald Reitlinger (1900–1978): art historian, collector of ceramics, and author of The Economics of Taste (1961): his sale in our rooms, 6 December 1954, lot 9, bought by:
3. Dr Alfred Scharf (1900–1965), German-born British art historian.
4. Sold again in our rooms, 22 June 2004, lot 17; bought by Quaritch.
5. The Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 1311

The parent manuscript and five sister miniatures in the McCarthy Collection are described in some detail by Peter Kidd (2021, no. 80). Three series of miniatures, all from the same manuscript, exist: one consists of about 40 scenes from the life of Jesus, and ends with King David, identifying them as a prefatory cycle for a Psalter; a second series, to which the present miniature belongs, depicts 24 scenes from the lives of the apostles and other saints; the third depicts the life of Joseph in 72 scenes (of an original 78). This third series is at the British Library (Add. MS 19992), and about fifteen miniatures are known from the first two series, including examples at the Lilly Library, Bloomington; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Art Institute, Chicago; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Royal Ontario Museum (recently discovered; see the blogpost for 15 October 2022 at mssprovenance.blogspot.com); and another was acquired by the Musée Cluny, Paris, in 2023.

This is a large-scale miniature from an important and extremely lavishly illuminated manuscript, and includes very rarely-depicted scenes. The detail of Jews identifying themselves (in French) is a particularly unusual feature.

REFERENCES

O. Pächt and J.J.G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. 1: German, Dutch, Flemish, French and Spanish Schools (Oxford, 1966), no. 604.

P. Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, III: French Miniatures (London, 2021), citing the present miniature at p. 284 (‘Private collection, Switzerland’).