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Auction archive: Lot number 17

Cutting from a Lectionary, with fine line-drawn Christ and St. Peter in an initial, in Latin, man

Estimate
£7,000 - £9,000
ca. US$9,697 - US$12,468
Price realised:
n. a.
Auction archive: Lot number 17

Cutting from a Lectionary, with fine line-drawn Christ and St. Peter in an initial, in Latin, man

Estimate
£7,000 - £9,000
ca. US$9,697 - US$12,468
Price realised:
n. a.
Beschreibung:

Cutting from a Lectionary, with fine line-drawn Christ and St. Peter in an initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [southern Germany, early twelfth century] Cutting from the bottom half of a large Romanesque manuscript, with a finely drawn initial 'U' (opening 'Venit Ihesus in partes ...', the reading from Matthew 16:13) in split bands of red penwork held together at their mid sections by bolted bands and containing acanthus leaf ornament at their terminals turned inwards on their bodies, the figures standing and half-facing each other with one foot in the initial and the other reaching out towards the viewer, as Christ (with a halo tinted with yellow-green, this also filling the outermost panel of the initial and perhaps once meant to suggest gold) hands over the keys of heaven, Christ's robes touched with pale green, and Peter's in red penwork, all before a pale blue wash ground, simple red initials, red rubrics, double column of 16 lines (of original 32) of a handsome Germanic Romanesque hand, recovered from reuse in a binding and hence with folds, small stains and discoloured sections, overall in presentable condition, 240 by 312mm. Provenance: 1. From a remarkably large Lectionary, with grand and imposing script and presumably many historiated initials. The original dimensions of the leaf would have been approximately 450 by 310mm. 2. Reused at the close of the Middle Ages as binding material, and most probably released into private hands at the time of the Secularisation in the opening years of the nineteenth century. 2. Acquired by Roger Martin from a private European collector in 2017. Decoration: While the imposing script could date to anywhere in the first half of the twelfth century, the fine drawing of the figures points to the very opening of that century. The simple facial modelling with features picked out by a few precise penstrokes and eyes formed from dots hung from their lids mirrors that of figures in a Moralia in Iob made at Echternach in the second half of the eleventh century (now BnF. Latin 9558: see F. Avril and C. Rabel, Manuscrits enluminés d'origine germanique, 1995, no. 22) and an Augustine, Tractatus in Evangelium Johannis, made at the same site between 1051 and 1081 (BnF. Latin 8912: ibid, no. 25), but the drapery and coloured shading of the figures here, in red and green for visual effect, is more developed and finer than those. The use of split panels bound together by riveted bands is a feature that appears around the very beginning of the twelfth century, while the inverted acanthus leaves, internally decorated by lines and dots, that point into the second ascender of the initial here from its head and foot, can also be found in part of a Legendarium made at Echternach in the second to third quarter of the twelfth century (now BnF. Latin 9740: ibid., no. 39). The grace of the figures here and their delicately proportioned bodies wrapped within tightly folded drapery reveals the hand of a master Romanesque artist here. Few examples of art involving the human form of this great age exist in private hands (see Blicke in Verborgene Schatzkammern, 1998, nos. 3-5, 8-9, for a representative survey of contemporary drawings), and even fewer still appear on the open market.

Auction archive: Lot number 17
Auction:
Datum:
6 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
Beschreibung:

Cutting from a Lectionary, with fine line-drawn Christ and St. Peter in an initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [southern Germany, early twelfth century] Cutting from the bottom half of a large Romanesque manuscript, with a finely drawn initial 'U' (opening 'Venit Ihesus in partes ...', the reading from Matthew 16:13) in split bands of red penwork held together at their mid sections by bolted bands and containing acanthus leaf ornament at their terminals turned inwards on their bodies, the figures standing and half-facing each other with one foot in the initial and the other reaching out towards the viewer, as Christ (with a halo tinted with yellow-green, this also filling the outermost panel of the initial and perhaps once meant to suggest gold) hands over the keys of heaven, Christ's robes touched with pale green, and Peter's in red penwork, all before a pale blue wash ground, simple red initials, red rubrics, double column of 16 lines (of original 32) of a handsome Germanic Romanesque hand, recovered from reuse in a binding and hence with folds, small stains and discoloured sections, overall in presentable condition, 240 by 312mm. Provenance: 1. From a remarkably large Lectionary, with grand and imposing script and presumably many historiated initials. The original dimensions of the leaf would have been approximately 450 by 310mm. 2. Reused at the close of the Middle Ages as binding material, and most probably released into private hands at the time of the Secularisation in the opening years of the nineteenth century. 2. Acquired by Roger Martin from a private European collector in 2017. Decoration: While the imposing script could date to anywhere in the first half of the twelfth century, the fine drawing of the figures points to the very opening of that century. The simple facial modelling with features picked out by a few precise penstrokes and eyes formed from dots hung from their lids mirrors that of figures in a Moralia in Iob made at Echternach in the second half of the eleventh century (now BnF. Latin 9558: see F. Avril and C. Rabel, Manuscrits enluminés d'origine germanique, 1995, no. 22) and an Augustine, Tractatus in Evangelium Johannis, made at the same site between 1051 and 1081 (BnF. Latin 8912: ibid, no. 25), but the drapery and coloured shading of the figures here, in red and green for visual effect, is more developed and finer than those. The use of split panels bound together by riveted bands is a feature that appears around the very beginning of the twelfth century, while the inverted acanthus leaves, internally decorated by lines and dots, that point into the second ascender of the initial here from its head and foot, can also be found in part of a Legendarium made at Echternach in the second to third quarter of the twelfth century (now BnF. Latin 9740: ibid., no. 39). The grace of the figures here and their delicately proportioned bodies wrapped within tightly folded drapery reveals the hand of a master Romanesque artist here. Few examples of art involving the human form of this great age exist in private hands (see Blicke in Verborgene Schatzkammern, 1998, nos. 3-5, 8-9, for a representative survey of contemporary drawings), and even fewer still appear on the open market.

Auction archive: Lot number 17
Auction:
Datum:
6 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
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