Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

Attractive leaf from a manuscript of illustrious patronage and by a painter of the Tours School at the time of Jean Bourdichon.

176 x 123 mm. Single leaf, ruled in light red for two columns of 29 lines (written space: 110 x 81 mm), written in black ink in a formal gothic bookhand, capitals touched with yellow, rubrics in red, one- and two-lines initial in liquid gold on alternately blue, brown, or red ground, ONE FOUR-LINE HISTORIATED INITIAL in grisaille on red ground, with liquid gold highlight, accompanied with a THREE-SIDED COMPARTMENTED BORDER enclosing the column, with colored flowers, acanthus sprouts, and two birds on alternately liquid gold and brown ground (slight losses in the brown ink and in the blue initials, else excellent condition).

This leaf comes from the Breviary of Bertrand de Chalençon (d. 1501), bishop of Rodez, Central France, from 1457 to 1494, whose arms or and gules quarterly a bordure sable semé de lis or, with a bishop’s crosier were described among the illuminated borders. Our leaf can be identified as former f. 105 of the volume and belonged to the section of the Temporal. The text on the recto is from Lauds and Terce of the Passion Saturday to the Matins of Palm Sunday, of which the first lesson is continued on the verso and followed by the second and third.

The first lesson of Palm Sunday opens with an historiated initial that represents in a half-length setting Christ preaching to a man and a woman. A luxuriant border alternating grounds of liquid gold and brown signals and enhances the opening of the feast with acanthus sprouts and birds. Two distinct illuminators were tasked with the execution of the seventy-six historiated initials that the Breviary contained: the second appears to be a close follower to Jean Bourdichon, while the first artist, the one responsible for our leaf, is an as-yet unidentified illuminator who may also have been active in Tours. Although his figures are simplified and their faces heavily shaded, the use of liquid gold enlivens the draperies, the hair, as well as the skies often patterned with gold dots.

Provenance
Private collection, California, USA, MS 243.

Parent manuscript
1. The parent manuscript was illuminated for bishop Bertrand de Chalençon (1457-1494), an important prelate, patron of the arts and local builder (see Barrau 2013). The manuscript included 512 leaves, illuminated with 76 historiated initials, with a Temporal from the first Sunday in Advent (of which section comes the present leaf), a Calendar, a Ferial Psalter, a Common of Saints, Office of the Virgin and of the Dead, a Sanctoral from Feast of St. Saturninus, a Feast of the Dedication, as well as a Feast of the Relics of the Church of Rodez. 2. Louis de Rochebaron, bishop of Rodez, had a set of prayers to St. Anthony added in a sixteenth-century hand; his signature appeared on ff. 325v and 510v.
3. The manuscript was last sold as complete, although lacking already six leaves, at Christie’s, London on 3 June 1998, lot 22. The present leaf was described then as f. 105. It was dismantled by its owner shortly afterwards.

Sister leaves
Sister leaves have appeared on the market from the 2000s onwards, including two sold at Old World Auctions (9 December 2002, lot 522; 6 September 2004, lot 620), one by Phillip J. Pirages (Catalog 70, no 456).

LITERATURE
Christie’s, London, 3 June 1998, lot 22. Further literature: C. Barrau, “Deux flamboyants commanditaires: les évêques de Rodez Guillaume de la Tour et Bertrand de Chalencon (XVe siècle),” in Le commanditaire, l’artiste et l’œuvre: histoire de la création artistique en Rouergue et dans ses marges (XVe-XVIIIe siècle), Rodez, 2013.

Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.