Vie de St Denis atelier - photo 1
Vie de St Denis atelier - photo 2

Vie de St Denis atelier

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£ 9 450
Auction dateClassic
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 993393
Lot 1 | Vie de St Denis atelier
Vie de St Denis atelier

The Adoration of the Magi, full-page miniature doubtless from a Psalter [France (Paris?), third quarter 13th century]

A glittering miniature depicting the Adoration of the Magi from a known series, once part of a de luxe Psalter.



87 x 65 mm, full-page miniature, blank on the reverse, based on a standard iconographic type, with the Magi depicted as kings, one pointing upwards to the Star of Bethlehem (not shown) and turning to another, the third, his crown in one hand and his offering in the other, kneeling before the Virgin and Child, the latter holding an open book or pair of wax tablets, the reverse inscribed in pencil in German, ‘Anbetung der Heilige Drei Könige, französ(ische) 13. Jah(under)t.’, and ‘1’, perhaps by Robert Forrer (see Provenance) (the gold background and frame rubbed, the blue pigment somewhat abraded, but the crisp draughtsmanship of faces, hands, and draperies in good condition). Mounted and framed.



Provenance:

(1) Undoubtedly from a prefatory series of miniatures, of which four others are known, from a de luxe Psalter.



(2) Robert Forrer (1866–1947), archaeologist, art collector, and museum director, of Strasbourg: described and reproduced in his Unedierte Federzeichnungen Miniaturen u. Initialen des Mittelalters, vol. II (Strassburg, 1907), p.13 and Taf. XLII; offered for sale in 1911 by C.G. Boerner of Leipzig (Manuskripte, abendländische Miniaturen, orientalische Miniaturen, no 16).



Sister miniatures:

Five miniatures are known, from what was presumably originally a much longer series:

1. The present miniature

2. The Presentation in the Temple

3. The Entry into Jerusalem

4. The Betrayal of Judas

5. The Flagellation

Nos. 2–5 are reproduced in the 1907 Forrer catalogue, and nos. 3–4 are in colour in Boerner, 1911.



Illumination:

The history of 13th-century French illumination awaits a replacement for the confused and confusing account offered by the posthumous publication in 1977 of Robert Branner’s attempt at a synthesis, but until such a study appears, we are reliant on his book, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles. Taking this as our imperfect guide, the present miniature seems to fit best within the so-called ‘Vie de St Denis’ atelier, with its palette in which Pompeian reds and blue dominate, drapery folds are usually painted with a darker tone of the same colour rather than drawn with ink lines, ‘heads have large jaws, fairly even features, and hair combed away from the face in regular but fairly unvaried locks’. The draperies show none of the troughed-fold style of the early decades of the century, and are thus a later work of the stylistic current described by Branner as an ‘atelier’, presumably post-dating the 1250 Vie de St. Denis manuscript itself (BnF, ms. n.a.f. 1098).

Place of origin:Western Europe, France, Europe
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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12.07.2023 – 12.07.2023
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