Showing posts with label leaf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leaf. Show all posts

Monday, 5 June 2017

Majestas Domini from a Lost Missal, Chalon-sur-Saône, France, 1450

This fine miniature is on a single leaf bound into an unrelated volume at the British Library:

The BL description is here, and this leaf is mentioned briefly by François Avril, who attributes it to the illuminator who executed a copy of Le Débat du Chrétien et du Sarrasin (Paris, BnF, ms. fr. 948) written by Jean Germain, Bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône (1436-1461) (see François Avril & Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peinture en France 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, p.195).

The miniature was presumably one of a facing pair in a Missal, but the other one, presumably representing a Crucifixion, has not yet been identified.

Does anyone know its whereabouts? And leads will be gratefully received.


Saturday, 6 August 2016

Full-Page Crucifixion from a Missal(?) dated 1480

UPDATE, 5 Sept 2016
I now have some slightly better, and significantly larger, images (click each image to see the large versions):

     
It no longer looks as if John has a large halo, but it is clear the Christ does have one.
The Cross is 'T'-shaped.
Mary is wearing a veil and has her hand to her cheek.
John appears to have his hands clasped in front of his chest.
A skull is clearly visible at the foot of the Cross.
There is a coiling acanthus border around the image.

--------------------------
[original post:]

    

The blurry images above are variants of my only visual evidence for the appearance of a large full-page miniature from the same Christie's sale as in a previous post.

It appears that Mary has her left hand to her cheek, and it looks as though John has an unusually large halo, or perhaps there is a figure standing behind him wearing a pale cloak.

Here is the Christie's description:

Even though the image is not at all clear, the presence of the date "1480" and letters "J.K." should make a definitive identification possible. If anyone has a better image, or knows where this leaf is now, please let me know.