THE LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE ELDERS, and THE OPENING OF THE BOOK, two miniatures on either side of a cutting from the Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Lorraine, late 13th century].
THE LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE ELDERS, and THE OPENING OF THE BOOK, two miniatures on either side of a cutting from the Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Lorraine, late 13th century]. 103 x 138mm. On the recto the seven-horned lamb surrounded by the symbols of the four Evangelists, and the twenty-four crowned elders on either side (Apocalypse 5:6); on the verso Christ breaking the seven seals of the book, the lamb at his side, both in a mandorla surrounded by the elders emerging from the clouds in musical worship (Apocalypse 5:7-14), (some light smudging and wear, especially to the winged bull of St Luke, miniature cropped close to border). Double-sided mount. Provenance : (1) the present cutting was originally taken from f.10 of the famous Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse, a Latin manuscript with the gloss of Berengarius of the second family of Apocalypses (as classified by L. Delisle and P. Meyer, L’Apocalypse en français au XIIIe siècle , 1900, and by M.R. James, The Apocalypse in Art , 1931) originally (and still occasionally) assumed to be of English origin, given its close parallels with English 13th-century illumination, but now widely acknowledged to have been produced in Lorraine under the patronage of count Thibaut de Bar (d.1292) and Jeanne de Toucy-Châtillon (d.1317). The intact manuscript, it has been suggested, was perhaps made for ELEANOR PLANTAGENET (1264-1297), eldest daughter of Edward I, and wife of Henry III de Bar. (2) The parent manuscript was likely dismembered by Peter Birmann in 1796 and its miniatures were sold en bloc to: (3) DANIEL BURCKARDT-WILDT (1752-1819): sale by his heirs, Sotheby’s, 25 April 1983, lot 36. (4) ALAN THOMAS (1911-1992): his sale, Sotheby’s 22 June 1993. AN EXCEPTIONAL SURVIVAL FROM A SPLENDID 13TH-CENTURY FRENCH APOCALYPSE . Many of the 41 cuttings sold at the 1983 Sotheby’s sale are now in institutional collections, and only a handful have appeared at public auction since their rediscovery. The illumination of the Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse is closely linked to that of two other manuscripts of the so-called ‘Lorraine Group’ (see Tributes to Lucy Freeman Sandler: Studies in Illuminated Manuscript s, 2007, p.95): BL, Add. MS 22493 (a fragment) and Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana ms. Ashburnham 415. The programme of illumination is also strikingly similar to the Angers Apocalypse tapestries, woven between 1373 and 1382 for Louis I, Duke of Anjou.
THE LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE ELDERS, and THE OPENING OF THE BOOK, two miniatures on either side of a cutting from the Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Lorraine, late 13th century].
THE LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE ELDERS, and THE OPENING OF THE BOOK, two miniatures on either side of a cutting from the Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Lorraine, late 13th century]. 103 x 138mm. On the recto the seven-horned lamb surrounded by the symbols of the four Evangelists, and the twenty-four crowned elders on either side (Apocalypse 5:6); on the verso Christ breaking the seven seals of the book, the lamb at his side, both in a mandorla surrounded by the elders emerging from the clouds in musical worship (Apocalypse 5:7-14), (some light smudging and wear, especially to the winged bull of St Luke, miniature cropped close to border). Double-sided mount. Provenance : (1) the present cutting was originally taken from f.10 of the famous Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse, a Latin manuscript with the gloss of Berengarius of the second family of Apocalypses (as classified by L. Delisle and P. Meyer, L’Apocalypse en français au XIIIe siècle , 1900, and by M.R. James, The Apocalypse in Art , 1931) originally (and still occasionally) assumed to be of English origin, given its close parallels with English 13th-century illumination, but now widely acknowledged to have been produced in Lorraine under the patronage of count Thibaut de Bar (d.1292) and Jeanne de Toucy-Châtillon (d.1317). The intact manuscript, it has been suggested, was perhaps made for ELEANOR PLANTAGENET (1264-1297), eldest daughter of Edward I, and wife of Henry III de Bar. (2) The parent manuscript was likely dismembered by Peter Birmann in 1796 and its miniatures were sold en bloc to: (3) DANIEL BURCKARDT-WILDT (1752-1819): sale by his heirs, Sotheby’s, 25 April 1983, lot 36. (4) ALAN THOMAS (1911-1992): his sale, Sotheby’s 22 June 1993. AN EXCEPTIONAL SURVIVAL FROM A SPLENDID 13TH-CENTURY FRENCH APOCALYPSE . Many of the 41 cuttings sold at the 1983 Sotheby’s sale are now in institutional collections, and only a handful have appeared at public auction since their rediscovery. The illumination of the Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse is closely linked to that of two other manuscripts of the so-called ‘Lorraine Group’ (see Tributes to Lucy Freeman Sandler: Studies in Illuminated Manuscript s, 2007, p.95): BL, Add. MS 22493 (a fragment) and Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana ms. Ashburnham 415. The programme of illumination is also strikingly similar to the Angers Apocalypse tapestries, woven between 1373 and 1382 for Louis I, Duke of Anjou.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
