Master of the Berry Apocalypse (fl1407-20)

Starting price
£ 7 000
Auction date Classic
09.12.2020 00:00 UTC +00:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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United Kingdom, London
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ID 470152
Lot 24 | Master of the Berry Apocalypse (fl1407-20)
Master of the Berry Apocalypse (fl.1407-20)

Caesar battling the Flemish, Paris, c.1416

CAESAR BATTLING THE FLEMISH, miniature cut from a Manuel d'Histoire of Philip VI of Valois, in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1416].



An important miniature from a fragmentary Manuel d'Histoire at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, illuminated by the Master of the Berry Apocalypse, one of the artists working for Jean, Duc de Berry.



162 x 196mm. Miniature with two lines of text in two columns, reverse with c.22 lines in 2 columns, 2 small illuminated initials and 3 lines of rubrics in red (heavily rubbed and darkened, creased and thumbed).



Provenance: (1) The present miniature was cut from a compilation of historical chronicles commissioned by Philip VI of Valois in 1326-30. This Manuel d'Histoire survives in very fragmentary state in Paris, BnF, nouv. acq. fr. 14285 (see exhib. cat. Paris 1400, 2004, no 181), and includes a number of texts including the Chronique of Baudouin d'Avesnes. Only one other copy of the text survives (British Library, Cotton MS Augustus V). (2) Richard Bisill, of Somerset: his 16th-century ex-libris in the parent manuscript: 'Thes bock is Rychard Bysyll of Chard, in the county of Somerset and in thys bock is [...]'. (3) An 18th-century hand in the parent manuscript reads: 'Men clapen them Loeranez [...] men clapen them Odenthos. Mandeville's Travels, p. 352'. (4) According to the Schoenberg Database, the fragmentary parent manuscript was lot 7470 in J. & J. Leighton, Catalogue of early-printed, and other interesting books, manuscripts and fine bindings, Part XIII (1901). At the time of this sale it contained 35 large miniatures. This manuscript was purchased by Albert Rosset, of Lyons (see. A. Rosset, 'Le Manuel d'histoire de Philippe VI de Valois et ses enluminures', Arts anciens de la Flandre, VI, 1913, p.p.123-126, his sale of Précieux manuscrits à peintures du XIIIe au XVIIe siècle, Hôtel Drouot, 17 June 1960, lot 6).



A sister cutting representing Sodom and Gomorrah and the Tower of Babel appeared in Maggs, European Bulletin 17, no 7.



Illumination: The style of illumination is that of the Master of the Berry Apocalypse, one of the three illuminators at work in BnF, nouv. acq. fr. 14285, active in Paris between c.1407-20 and named by Millard Meiss after a manuscript Apocalypse made for the great French patron of the Arts Jean, Duc de Berry in c.1415, now Morgan Library, ms. M. 133. Influenced by the Boucicaut Master, the style of the Berry Apocalypse Master is characterised by washes of pale grey, brown or magenta, touched by opaque white and irregularly accented by heavy outlines (see M. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry. The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 1974, II, pp.368-372).

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