A young man in profile, on a leaf from the Breviary of Lionello d'Este - photo 1

A young man in profile, on a leaf from the Breviary of Lionello d'Este

Lot 205
19.10.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 5 292
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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Archive
ID 1032857
Lot 205 | A young man in profile, on a leaf from the Breviary of Lionello d'Este
Estimate value
$ 2 500 – 3 500
A brilliantly illuminated leaf from the Breviary of Lionello d'Este — also known as the Llangattock Breviary — with a finely modelled profile portrait of a young man in the margin.

269 x 200mm. Two columns of 30 lines written in brown ink in a gothic bookhand, the text from Psalms 80:9 - 84:4, '[Audi populus] meus et contestabor te' to 'mitigasti omnem iram [tuam]', rubrics in red, 4 two-line illuminated initials, full-length bar borders of burnished gold terminating with floral and sprays, verso with a profile portrait of a young man with a hat in the margin (lightly thumbed, else in excellent condition).

Provenance:
(1) All aspects of the manuscript – size, format and illumination – correspond to those of the Missal of Borso d'Este, marquis and then duke of Ferrara (Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Ms W.5.2, lat. 239) and the Breviary was certainly made either for him or his predecessor Lionello, and intended, like the Missal, for use in the ruler’s chapel. It is now usually identified with the Breviary recorded in accounts in the d’Este archives as having been illuminated for Lionello by Giorgio d’Alemagna, Bartolomeo di Benincà, Guglielmo Giraldi and Matteo de' Pasti.

(2) The parent manuscript was sold at Christie’s, 8 December 1958, lot 190, as part of the estate of the 2nd Baron Llangattock. It carried the bookplate of John Etherington Welch Rolls (1807-1870), father of the 1st Baron Llangattock. Many miniatures had already been removed (supposedly by soldiers during the Peninsular War) and after the sale the remaining leaves were separated and dispersed. Sister leaves were sold recently at Christie’s, 24 November – 3 December 2015, lots 27 and 28, and 30 July 2020 lot 3.

Illumination:
The charming, finely modelled portrait of a young man facing right in the border of our leaf directly mirrors the portrait of a young woman, facing left, that appears in a sister leaf in Ferrara, Museo Civico Schifanoia, Inv. OA 1631. The most comprehensive recent study of the Breviary is F. Toniolo, ‘Il lungo viaggio del Breviario di Lionello d'Este tra le due sponde dell'Atlantico’, Medioevo: arte e storia, 2008, pp.564-77. A virtual reconstruction of the manuscript can be found on the 'Broken Books' website (brokenbooks.omeka.net), where the present leaf is listed.
Genre:Religious genre
Place of origin:Italy
Auction house category:Medieval & renaissance manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
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