Circle of Benedetto Bordone - photo 1
Circle of Benedetto Bordone - photo 2

Circle of Benedetto Bordone

Lot 21
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 7 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1249753
Lot 21 | Circle of Benedetto Bordone
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Circle of Benedetto Bordone
Entry into Jerusalem, historiated initial Q on a leaf from a Processional, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [north-eastern Italy, possibly Venice, c.1520-30]
A splendid leaf from a Processional illuminated by an accomplished artist working in the style of Benedetto Bordone.

261 x 187mm. The initial Q opening the hymn for the Palm Sunday procession, ‘Quum appropinquaret dominus hierosolymam […]’, six lines of text and music on 4-line staves in red, with two-sided panel border with grey foliage emerging from a classical plinth on a dark blue ground and with cartouches containing a seated figure with a spear and a bearded man, both modelled in gold on a red ground (two small pigment losses to inner border, small wormhole touching stave, some fading of ink to text and notation). Pasted into window mount at edges.

Provenance:
(1) Sotheby’s, 29 June 2007, lot 15.

(2) Bloomsbury Book Auctions, 6 July 2016, lot 85.

Illumination:
The beautifully painted border and image of Christ on a donkey are the work of a highly-skilled illuminator, painting in the style of Benedetto Bordone (fl.1488-1530). The leaf is very similar in layout, size and illumination to f.5 in a fragment of 29 leaves from a Processional now in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., MS Typ 310 (see Roger S. Wieck, Late Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, 1983, 131 and pl.52). The palette and figures in the cartouches vary, and the initials are in a different hand, but the close similarity overall suggests a series of choirbooks may have been made for the same institution. The treatment of the figure of Christ, particularly in the modelling of facial features, is close in style to the Evangelarium of Santa Giustina of c.1523-25, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, W.107, whilst the finesse of the painting in the classicised border, with grey foliage casting shadows on a striking blue background, and finely modelled figures, are closely comparable with those in the so-called Psalter of the Prince d’Anjou, a luxurious manuscript from the collection of Horace Walpole, sold Sotheby’s, 18 May 1981, lot 19 and a leaf from a Commission: St. Mark Giving the Keys of Venice to Francesco de Priuli, c.1523–1524 (Cleveland Museum of Art, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection, 2011.69).

The Paduan born Bordone was an illuminator, printmaker, scholar and writer, who moved to Venice in 1492. The intensity of colours found in his printed and manuscript works display the influence of Venetian painters, such as Giovanni Battista Cima.
Place of origin:Italy, Europe
Auction house category:Books and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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