Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

By one of the most influential of the Parisian Bible workshops, the Vie de Saint Denis Atelier, named for a deluxe manuscript illuminated for the Kings of France.

190 x 136 mm. Single leaf, ruled in plummet for two columns of 50 lines (written space: c. 138 x 89 mm), with an extra rule in the top margin for the running titles, vertical bounding lines ruled full across, written below top line in light brown ink in a formal gothic book hand, rubrics in red, with an instruction ‘.IIII⸱ C’ written by the scribe close to verso sewing edge for chapter number and initial, running titles and chapter numbers alternately in red and blue, three two-line initials alternatively in red and blue with red-and-teal penwork sometimes extending into the lower margins, ONE SIX-LINE HISTORIATED INITIAL in pale pink with white highlights on burnished gold and blue ground decorated with white dots and lines (parchment repair in the center of the outer border edge, tape stains on the four corners of the verso, slight cockling of the parchment, else in good condition).
 
This leaf comes from a luxurious thirteenth-century Bible. It contains the end of II Peter and beginning of I John, reading on the recto from I Peter 3:4, “[aut] adventus ejus…,” to I John 4:7 on the verso, “diligamus nos invicem quoniam…” The beginning of I John is introduced with a historiated initial ‘Q’, for “Quod,” with St. John seated in a burnished gold ground and writing on a book held on a lectern – he holds a knife on his left hand and a pen on his right hand.

In 2000, Sotheby’s identified the artist of one leaf from this Bible as the “Vie de Saint Denis Master” (6 July 2000, lot 16), and we concur with an attribution to this workshop. Although small in scale, hallmarks of the Vie de Saint Denis Atelier are evident especially in the Tree of Jesse miniature remaining in the McCarthy Collection (Kidd, no. 20, fig. d): the rounded jawline and hair combed in a regular pattern. The gestures of the figures are varied, and our illuminator uses subtle hues in the palette with blue alternation with ochre beige. If it is not the lead painter from the workshop, then it is certainly a painter familiar with the general style. Typical also of manuscripts of the Vie de Saint Denis Atelier is the rich, thickly burnished goldleaf of even the smallest initials, when most Parisian Bibles use only tempera, which suggests a luxurious commission for a wealthy patron.

Provenance
(1) John Louis Feldman (1957-2021), Colorado and New York, acquired in September 1997 by:

(2) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 1119.

Sister leaves
The parent manuscript has not yet been identified, but leaves seem to have first appeared on the market in the mid-1990s. All known sister leaves are in private hands, including a further six in the McCarthy collection, published together with the present one in his catalogue as no.20 (see below).
 
LITERATURE
The present leaf has been described and published in: Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Vol. III, French Miniatures, London, 2018, no. 20f, pp. 85-87 (with further literature); further reading, Robert Branner, Manuscript Illumination in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, Berkeley, 1977, pp. 87-93, 224-227.

We are grateful to Peter Kidd for permission to quote from his catalogue for this entry. Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.