Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

Illuminations in grisaille, like this refined example, are rare, but this technique became one of the specialties of Willem Vrelant, the most successful illuminator in Bruges in the time of Philip the Good.

156 x 109 mm. Single leaf, ruled in red for 14 lines (written space: 93 x 63 mm), written in dark brown ink in a formal gothic book hand, capitals touched with yellow, rubrics in red, one two-lines illuminated initial in burnished gold on red and blue ground with white tracery, one six-line historiated initial in blue with white tracery on burnished gold ground, accompanied with a two-sided slim bar border in red and burnished gold (slight browning at edges, else in very good condition).

This leaf comes from the Suffrages of a Book of Hours of which several other leaves have been identified as illuminated in the workshop of Willem Vrelant, who arrived in Bruges from Utrecht in 1454 and became the leading illuminator in Bruges, running a flourishing atelier, until his death in 1481. It contains the suffrage to St. Paul and is introduced with a large historiated initial ‘O’ in blue on burnished gold ground. Slightly bald and bearded, the saint appears standing on an outdoor courtyard, holding his sword in the left hand and an open book in the right. The composition extends beyond the walls onto a landscape of hills and trees, in which a high church emerges in the distance, which probably evokes St. Paul’s close association with St. Peter as patron saints of the Roman church.

The grisaille palette of the initial demonstrates the excellent draftsmanship of the artist, for despite a limited palette, he succeeds in conveying both the conflicted feelings of the saint and the depth of the landscape. It was modelled on a soft grey ash with highlights of darker tones of grey and white, as well liquid gold, used to highlight the nimbus, the hilt of the sword, the border of the mantle, and the gilt edges of the open book. This refined execution is characteristic of the grisaille illuminated manuscripts that were a hallmark of Vrelant’s production in Bruges (see Watteuuw and Van Bos 2018). Also characteristic of mid-fifteenth century Flemish illumination are the wide blank margins of the leaf, framed with an elegant two-sided bar border. Both the composition and technique of this leaf may be compared, for instance, with the initials of a Book of Hours now in London (British Library, Yates Thompson, MS 4).

Provenance
Private collection, California, USA, MS 285.

Sister leaves
The parent manuscript is not identified, but several sister leaves from the same section of the Suffrages are known. It must have been dismantled before 1993, when a leaf with the Holy Sacrament appeared (Maggs Bros, Bulletin 20, 1995, no. 13). Three further sister leaves were sold by Phillip J. Pirages, with St. Hermes and St. Egidius (Catalogue 65, no. 119; Bonhams, Pasadena, 14 February 2016, lot 34), St. Peter (Catalogue 75, no. 13), and St. Sebastien (Catalogue 78, no. 76).

LITERATURE
For further literature on the artist, see Bernard Bousmanne, “Item à Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur.” Willem Vrelant : Un aspect de l’enluminure dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous le mécénat des ducs de Bourgogne Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire, Brussels and Turnhout, 1997; Lieve Watteeuw and Marina Van Bos, “Black as Ink. Materials and Techniques in Fifteenth Century Flemish Grisaille Illuminations by Jan de Tavernier, Willem Vrelant, and Dreux Jehan,” in New Perspectives on Flemish Illumination, ed. L. Watteuw, J. Van der Stock, B. Bousmanne, and D. Vanwijnsberghe, Leuven-Paris-Bristol, 2018, pp. 249-267.

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