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Twelve Masterpieces of Medieval and Renaissance Book Illumination. A Catalogue to theExhibition: March 17-May 17, 1964Author(s): William D. WixomSource: The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 51, No. 3, Twelve Masterpieces ofMedieval and Renaissance Book Illumination. A Catalogue to the Exhibition: March 17-May 17,1964 (Mar., 1964), pp. 43-63Published by: Cleveland Museum of Art
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'- -l 'f
1 Opening pages for the Gospel According to Saint John.
COVERS: 8 Hours of Charles the Noble.
Front: Page 49, Saint Matthew as a scribe and his symbol by Zebo da Firenze.
Back: Page 570, showing Saint Sebastian by Zebo da Firenze.
Opposite: Page 414, signature of Zebo da Firenze.
The BULLETIN of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Volume LI, Number 3, March 1964. Published monthly,except in July and August, by The Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Boulevard at University Circle, Cleveland
6, Ohio. Subscription included inmembership fee, otherwise $3.00 per year. Single copies, 35 cents, except May issue.
Copyright, 1964, by The Cleveland Museum of Art. Second-class postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio. Museum photog
raphy by Richard F. Godfrey; design and typography byMerald E.Wrolstad.
This content downloaded from 190.136.119.216 on Tue, 25 Jun 2013 17:18:05 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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Twelve Mastenpieces of MedievaL and Ren
aissance Book ILLumination. A Catalogue to
the Exhibition: March17-May
17/ 1964.
The exhibition of the objects listed and commented
upon in the following pages marks another opportu
nity for visitors to The Cleveland Museum of Art to
partake of the splendor and beauty in great illumi
nated books. Each manuscript is representative of a
particular phase in the long and fascinating development of Medieval and Renaissance book making.Each demonstrates a high point of book design, dec
oration, and illustration. Varying and contrasting
styles are represented, from theOttonian and Roman
esque periods through the Gothic and Renaissance.
Different texts are represented as well: Gospel books,
Missals, Books of Hours, a Bible, a Psalter, and a
Trionfi of Petrarch. Each book contains an exquisiteworld of its own and at the same time has a larger
context in relation to the development of manuscript
painting. Each reflects the patronage and usage ofits time. The short comments provided here are mere
indications and suggested guide lines for an initial
inquiry and appreciation.The fact that the exhibition is a changing one
should be underscored.- The pages of each manuscriptwill be turned each Tuesday and Friday until the
close of the exhibition.I wish to gratefully acknowledge the generosity of
the Trustees of The Walters Art Gallery in lendingseven of the finest manuscripts under their care. I am
especially indebted toMiss Dorothy Miner, Librarian
and Keeper of Manuscripts at the Gallery, for aid
and suggestions. W.D.W.
1 PAGES FROM A GOSPEL BOOK
Vellum, illuminated in tempera and gold, 4 leaves, 12-1/4x 9-1/2 inches. Germany, Westphalia, Valley of the
Weser River, attributed to Corvey, ca.950-975. Lent byThe Walters Art Gallery (W. 751)
Corvey on theWeser River was one of the principal
tenth-century monastic centers of learning in old
Saxony (in present-day northwestern Germany). It
was founded in 822 as one of the outposts of Chris
tianity for the motherhouse of Corbie, one of the
important Carolingian (ninth-century) centers in
Picardie (France). Three manuscripts preserved in
America today are the best known probable productsof the scriptorium which flourished at Corvey in the
third quarter of the tenth century. One of these isshown here in fragmentary form-the remainder of
theGospel Book from which these leaves came ispreserved in theMunicipal Library at Reims (Ms. 10).The manuscripts attributed to Corvey have certain
obvious elements in common: a bold use of color in
which purple is dominant and a predilection for ar
caded palmettes, engrailed borders, leaf patternssometimes
paintedin
reserve, interlace in borderpanels and letters, complex monograms forming the
initial words for each Gospel text, and rectangularframes with accented corners. Sources for this repertoire of ornament may be found in metal work, in
textiles, and in earlier manuscript innovations datingfrom the Carolingian period. Careful repetition, vari
ation, and a refined sense of decorative balance result
in a homogeneity of startling appeal to the contem
porary eye. Each decorated page dramatically con
trasts with, yet at the same time complements, the
opposing page.These pages represent the earliest manuscript, an
altar book, in the present exhibition and the second
earliest European manuscript on view in the Mu
seum. The earliest such work, a double-leaf from a
Carolingian Gradual, may be seen inGallery I. The
use of purple ground in deluxe manuscripts in the
43
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A
2 Folios 9 verso & 10 recto:
Abbot Berno of Reichenau presenting the volume
to anApostle [probably Saint Peter] and prologue
to theGospel According to SaintMatthew.
ABBREVIATIONS
Measurements: height precedes width.
EXHIBITIONS
Berkeley (1963)-University Art Gallery, University of
California, Pages from Medieval and Renaissance
Illuminated Manuscripts (Berkeley, April 24-June 8,
1963).Los Angeles (1953-1954)-Los Angeles County Mu
seum, Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts (1953-1954).Walters (1949)-Walters Art Gallery, Illuminated Books
of theMiddle Ages and Renaissance (Baltimore, Jan
uary 27-March 13, 1949).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bond (1962)-W. H. Bond and C. V. Faye, Supplementto the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manu
scripts in the United States and Canada (New York,
1962).De Ricci-S. De Ricci andW. J.Wilson, Census ofMedi
eval and Renaissance Manuscripts in theUnited States
and Canada (New York, 1935-1940).
Diringer-David Diringer, The Illuminated Book (New
York, n.d.).44
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Early Middle Ages may be traced in several examplesin the exhibition and in the permanent collection:
(1) the just mentioned double-leaf from a Carolin
gian Gradual, (2) the Gospel pages from Corveyshown here, (3) the Title Page of Abbot Berno's
"Tonarius," executed at Reichenau ca.1020-30, and(4) Four Gospels, also made at Reichenau for Abbot
Berno ca.1030 (lent from The Walters Art Gallery).The purple used in early Medieval manuscripts is not
a pure purple in the modern sense. Made from a dyederived from the ink-sacs of a shell fish, murex, the
Medieval purple ranged from deep blue to rose and
to brownish red as seen in the present example. The
murex was gathered in the eastern Mediterranean andthus this imported color was rare and considered
precious.
Ex Collections: Chapter Library of Cathedral of Notre Dame,Reims (before French Revolution); Sir Thomas Phillipps,MS. 14122; A. Chester Beatty, MS. 10 (1921-1952). Exhibi
tions: Los Angeles, #4; Queens College, The World as a
Symbol (New York, 1959), #82 (repr.); The Grolier Club,Additions to de Ricci (New York, 1962); Berkeley (1963),
#1, pls.II-III.
Bibliography:E.
Millar,The
Library ofA.
Chester Beatty, a Descriptive Catalogue of the Western Manu
scripts, I, no. 10 (London, 1927), 48-49, pls. XXVI, XXVII;
A. Boeckler, Abendlindische Miniaturen bis zum Ausgangder Romanischen Zeit (Berlin and Leipzig, 1930), pp. 51-52;J. J. Tikkanen, Studien uber die Farbengebung in des Mit
telalterlichen Buchmalerei (Helsinki, 1933), p. 299; B. da
Costa Greene and M. P. Harrsen, The Pierpont Morgan Li
brary, Exhibition of Illuminated Manuscripts (New York,
1934), p. 6, no. 11; Alois Schardt, Das Initial (Berlin, 1938),
pp. 58-61, repr.; Dorothy Miner, "The New Purple GospelManuscript," The Bulletin of the Walters Art Gallery, V (De
cember 1952), 1-3, 4; Meta Harrsen, Central European Manu
scripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York, 1958),
p. 13; Diringer, p. 183, pl. III-25b; Bond (1962), p. 198, no.
567.
2 FOUR GOSPELS
Vellum, Latin written in brown and gold, illuminatedwith tempera and gold leaf, 202 leaves, 9-1/16 x 6-1/2inches. Germany, Lake Constance, Reichenau, ca.1030.
Executed for Abbot Berno of Reichenau (1008-48).Lent by The Walters Art Gallery (W. 7)
Reichenau was one of the foremost monastic scriptoria during the rule of the Ottonian emperors. It
was a crossroads for successive members of this dy
nasty en route to and from Italy. A number of sumptuous volumes were produced for royal use or gift and
for high churchmen in other centers. All of these are
characterized by the combined use of chalky and in
tense colors, burnished gold, simplified shading, flat
tened space, and firm line. The working together of
these means in simplified yet sometimes explosive
compositions resulted in some of themost monumen
tal and expressive pictures and initials ever to grace
the pages of any Medieval book.The present manuscript-an altar book dating ca.
1030-is representative of a late phase of this stylewhich had begun some sixty years earlier. The inten
sity and energy of the earlier Reichenau manuscriptsis here stabilized and contracted. The result is a some
what more subdued effect-the earlier alertness, vi
vacity, and peculiar psychological fervor is restrained.
The hardening of line, simplification of planes, anddevelopment of abstract systems (as in the draperies)
especially suggests and anticipates similar features in
the subsequent Romanesque style which spread
throughout Europe in succeeding generations.An interesting feature concerning the manuscript
from The Walters Art Gallery is that it is closely con
nected with a page in the permanent collection of the
ClevelandMuseum: The Title Page of Abbot Berno's
"Tonarius," Dedicated to Archbishop Pilgrim of
Cologne (CMA Bulletin, XXXIX [September 1952],177-178, 179 repr., 183). The connections reside in
the fact that the same scribes probably worked on
both manuscripts, and also both manuscripts were
made at the behest of Abbot Berno of Reichenau
(1008-48). Abbot Berno ismentioned on the verso
of the "Tonarius" dedication page; his portrait ap
pears in the dedication miniature of the Four Gospels
(fol. 9 verso) where he is shown within an Ottonian
hall church and presenting the volume to an Apostle,
probably Saint Peter.
Abbot Berno's Four Gospels contains five full-page
miniatures, four of them faced by ornamented intro
ductory pages. The volume is prefaced by sixteen
pages of decorated Canon Tables.
Ex collections: Sir Thomas Brooke, Huddersfield, Yorkshire;Rev. Ingham Brooke (Sale, London, March 7, 1913, #8 repr.).Exhibitions: Walters (1949), #12, pl. VII. Bibliography:
Dorothy Miner, "A Late Reichenau Evangeliary in the
Walters Art Gallery Library," Art Bulletin, XVIII (June
1936), 168-185 (where previous literature is cited), figs. 1-13,
15; W. Gernsheim, Die Buchmalerei der Reichenau, Diss.
(Munich, 1934), p. 105; Peter Bloch, "Das Reichenauer
Einzelblatt mit den Frauen am Grabe im Hessischen Landes
museum Darmstalt," Kunst in Hessen und am Mittelrhein,
III (1963), 43.
45
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3 FOUR GOSPELS
WITH COMMENTARIES
Vellum, Greek written in brown and gold, illuminatedwith tempera and gold leaf, 428 leaves, 11 x 9 inches.
Byzantium,11th
century.The Cleveland Museum of
Art, purchase from the J.H. Wade Fund 42.152
Each of the Four Gospels begins with a brilliantly il
luminated headpiece similar to the one shown here.
These and the four evangelists' portraits painted in
the margins are exquisitely executed in meticulous
detail. The figure style is derived from classical author
portraits. The ornament distinctively combines clas
sicaland
oriental (Near Eastern)motifs. The
peacock-like birds symbolize the immortality of the soul,and the fountain represents the fountain of life.
The Gospel text appears in the larger, heavier
script, and the commentary is given below in a fine
cursive hand. The colophon has disappeared and with
it all record of the book's exact origin and first use.
The present covers of dark leather over wood boards
are old but not the original ones. The Greek words
for Matthew and Luke are painted on the lower fore
edge, a feature which points to the earlier association
of two full-page portraits of these evangelists orig
inally belonging to another Gospel Book. These added
miniatures have been removed and are displayed in
Gallery 1 (CMA Bulletin, XXXIV [March 1947],
50-56 repr.).
Ex collections: Monastery at Trebizond (?): Dikran G.Kelekian. Exhibition: Walters Art Gallery, Early Christian
and Byzantine Art (Baltimore, 1947), #704, pl. XCIX. Bib
liography: Kenneth W. Clark, A Descriptive Catalogue ofGreek New Testament Manuscripts in America (Chicago,
1937), pp. 122-123, where previous bibliography is given;
William M. Milliken, "Byzantine Manuscript Illumination,"CMA Bulletin, XXXIV (March 1947), 50-56; idem, "EarlyChristian and Byzantine Art in America," Journal of Aes
thetics and Art Criticism, V (June 1947), fig. 2; Charles Diehl,
Byzantium-Greatness and Decline (New Brunswick, New
Jersey, 1957), rep. p. 231; Bond, p. 428, no. 42.152
4 BIBLIA SELECTA
Vellum, Latin written in two columns in light brown, illuminated in tempera and burnished gold leaf, 164 leaves,14-1/4 x 9-3/4 inches. Northern Italy or possibly Sicily,ca.1260. Lent by The Walters Art Gallery (W. 152)
This manuscript in its present form with its 128
miniatures is a fraction of a large and profusely illus
trated Biblical volume, which an unconfirmed tradi
tion tells us was sent in 1267 or 1268 from Sicily to
Conradinus of Hohenstauffen. "It is ornamented in an
extraordinary style, with large marginal figures placed
upon irregularly shaped parti-colored grounds of rose
and blue which are studded with discs of gold. The
drawing of the figures and drapery is flat and Roman
esque, but the heads, greatly influenced by Byzantine
types, are strongly modelled with flesh-tints brushed
with vigorous, broken strokes over a dark greenishundercoat. The colors are strong and include sharpreds and yellows, as well as subdued lavender and
dull rose. The peculiarly restless and decorative page
layout cannot be compared with any other manu
script at present known, but the pictorial style is veryclose to the Epistolarium in Padua that was executed
by Gaibana in 1259. Resemblance to other manu
scripts and to frescos, as well as certain textual de
tails, suggests the region of the Veneto or possibly
Aquileia as the place where themanuscript may have
originated"-Dorothy Miner, 1949.
The Byzantine inspiration for the painter working
in thismanuscript was easily available in the form ofByzantine mosaics inVenice as well as in Sicily. The
differences between the style of the present manu
script and Byzantine manuscript painting may be
clearly seen by comparison with two Evangelists' portrait miniatures painted in Constantinople, ca.1057
1063, on view inGallery I (CMA Bulletin, XXXIV
[March 1947], 50-56 repr.). Byzantine influence in
Italianmanuscript painting may
be seen inmany
examples, also inGallery I.
Ex collections: Comte de Bastard; F. Spitzer (Sale, Paris,
1893, #3030). Exhibitions: Walters (1949), #36, pl. XXIII.
Bibliography: L. Delisle, Les Collections de Bastard d'Estanga la Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris, 1885), pp. 263, 276; A.
and E. Molinier, La Collection Spitzer, V (Paris, 1892), 124
126 and 141-143, no. 28, pl. V; De Ricci, I, p. 764, no. 44.
3Folio
200recto: opening page for Saint Luke.
46
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: SCENES FROM THE BIBLE
Vellum, French tituli in brown, illuminated with temperaand burnished gold leaf, 24 leaves, 5-1/4 x 3-7/8 inches.
William de Brailes, English, active ca. 1220-1240. Lent byThe Walters Art Gallery (W. 106)
Caricature (as in grinning, toothy faces in line-drawn
profiles), restricted color, elongated proportions,striding movement of figures in action, bold bunch
ing of crowds, and flatly-modeled drapery with an occasional deeply-cut fold are elements peculiar to the
paintings of William de Brailes, one of two known
English illuminators working in the thirteenth cen
tury. The limited yet expressive style of William de
Brailes is so entirely personal that historians havebeen able to assign a number of miniatures to him onthe basis of comparison with those manuscript illu
minations which he signed. One such manuscript isan incomplete prayer-book, formerly in the DysonPerrins collection and now in the British Museum, inwhich a tonsured man, represented in two places, appears to be the artist's self-portrait as there are in
scriptions "w. de brail qui me depeint" and "w. debrail." The twenty-seven unsigned scenes bound intheWalters volume may have originally been a partof the missing but expected cycle of Bible illustrations in the Dyson Perrins prayer-book. Seven additional scenes were until recently in the collection of
Georges Wildestein. In all of these scenes, many with
episodes rarely depicted, William de Brailes shows
an unerring and imaginative sense for vivid narrativein spite of the probable fact that he must have had athand earlier models reflecting perhaps an ancient lost
cycle of Bible illustrations.
A single miniature showing the Sacrifice of Isaacwhich was executed by an unknown illuminator
working in a style closely akin to that of William deBrailes may be seen in Gallery I (CMA Bulletin,XXXIII [March
1956],43-44
repr.).
4 Folio 156 verso: Biblia Selecta.
5 Folio 21 verso: the Ascension.
Exhibitions: Wadsworth Atheneum, The Life of Christ (Hartford, 1948), #174; Walters (1949), #41, pl. XXI; Universityof Minnesota Gallery, Space in
Painting (1952);Los
Angeles(1953-1954), #31, repr.; Temple Emanuel, Houston, Texas,Festival of the Bible (1961); Jewish Museum, New York, TheHebrew Bible in Art (1963); Berkeley (1963), #17, pl. XVI.
Bibliography: De Ricci, I, p. 844, no. 500; Hans Swarzenski,"Unknown Bible Pictures by W. de Brailes," Journal of the
Walters Gallery, I (1938), 55-69; Margaret Rickert, Paintingin Britain-the Middle Ages, Pelican History of Art (Balti
more, 1954), p. 14, 133, note 44, pl. 99b; Pieter Brieger, English Art, 1216-1307, The Oxford History of English Art
(Oxford, 1957), pp. 86 note 2, 89-90, pl. 28; Diringer, p. 27,pl. V-14; Margaret Rickert, La Miniature Anglaise, 13-15
itme siecles (Milan, 1961), pl. 8.
49
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6 Folio 153recttheotorinity.
6 Folio 153 recto' theTrinity.
6 PSALTER
For Dominican use. Vellum, Latin written in brown and
red, illuminated with tempera and burnished gold leaf,222 leaves, 5-3/4 x 4 inches. France, Paris, ca.1320.
Atelier of Jean Pucelle. Lent by The Walters Art Gallery(W. 115)
According to the opinion of Mrs. Kathleen Morand,this exquisite Psalter containing eight historiated ini
tials was probably made by one of two artists who
later assisted Jean Pucelle on the famous Belleville
Breviary, ca.1323-1326, in the Bibliotheque Natio
nale. Entries in the Calendar suggest that itmay have
been made for Blanche ofBrittany,
widow of Phil
ippe d'Artois, a proposal also put forward by Mrs.
Morand. In any case, themanuscript typifies the best
in small devotional books created especially for the
aristocratic laymen. Such books are found in increas
ing numbers in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fif
teenth centuries. Other outstanding examples are in
the present exhibition.
A number of the inventions seen in thismanuscriptcontinue to be used in the later fourteenth century,as a comparison with the Gotha Missal of 1375 bears
out. Common to both manuscripts is the basic format
of relatively large historiated initials with diapered
backgrounds of color and gold set into the text which
in turn is framed by a delicate stem work and sparse
yet sprightly ivy leaves. The quality and character of
the figure painting continues in the later manuscriptwith important changes wrought in terms of light and
darkmodeling
andgreater
realism. Some compositions are especially similar; for example, in theTrinity
miniature of the Psalter, the pose of the Father and
Son is similar to that of the Virgin and Christ in the
miniature of the Coronation of the Virgin in the
Missal, and in both miniatures the thrones with their
quatre-lobed panels resemble each other.
Ex collection: Blanche of Brittany (?). Exhibition: Walters
(1949), #67, pl. XXXII. Bibliography: De Ricci, I, p. 774,
no. 105; Diringer, p. 385, pl. VII-8.
7 Folio 11 recto: Gotha Missal.
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7 MISSAL
For Paris use. Vellum, Latin written in two columns in
red, blue and brown, illuminated with tempera and goldleaf, 164 leaves, 10-11/16 x 7-11/16 inches.France, Paris,Jean Bondol and his atelier, ca.1375. Additional leaves
of the fifteenth century appear at the beginning and endof the manuscript. At the beginning of these are twominiatures showing the Trinity and the Resurrection
painted by the youthful Bedford Master ca.1410. The
binding is blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, Paris,second half of the 15th century. The Cleveland Museumof Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 62.287
This sumptuous manuscript, frequently called the
Gotha Missal, may have been commissioned by one
of the great fourteenth-century royal bibliophiles.Internal evidence fully discussed in the bibliography
suggests that itmay have been intended for the private chapel of the Valois king, Charles V of France
(d. 1380). Charles was a great lover of fine books;he is a prime exhibit of what Professor Erwin Panof
sky referred to as "the emergence of a wealthy and
cultured lay society with its concomitants of passion
ate collecting and 'pride of ownership,"' and "demandfor sumptuously illustrated books."
The style and quality of the miniatures in the
Gotha Missal shed considerable light on the high
place it holds within a large group of manuscripts
produced for Charles and within the more select
group of manuscripts accepted today as from the
hand of the Netherlandish artist, Jean de Bruges,called Jean Bondol, the head of the king's own manu
script atelier and also his valet de chambre. Stylis
tically the miniatures in the Gotha Missal may be
divided into two groups of twelve and eleven minia
tures each, even though Bondol may have made the
preliminary and underlying sketches for them all. The
first and finest group of twelve miniatures is charac
terized by an extremely subtle modeling of the fig
ures, their draperies and facial features. This is done
primarily in terms of light and dark with occasionalaccents of color in the shading of the faces. This mod
eling establishes each figure as a convincing mass
within a suggested ambient space. Such plasticity and
painterliness becomes weaker and turns to elegant,
yet more obvious linear means in the second group of
miniatures.
Panofsky's description in Early Netherlandish
Painting of Bondol's miniatures in a Bible in The
Hague could be applied to the finest group of minia
tures in the Gotha Missal:
Figures and objects are rendered with a broad, fluid
brush, a ... pictorial tendency . . .evident throughout.Strong local colors that would tend to separate one
area from the other are suppressed in favor of subduedtonality, and the interest is focused not only on the
plastic form, but also on the surface texture of things:on the specific tactile qualities of wool or fleecyanimals' coats as opposed to flesh, of wood or stoneas opposed to metal.
There are no buildings in the Gotha Missal as there
are inThe Hague Bible, yet space is suggested by fore
shortened pieces of furniture or hints of a receding
ground plane. There is a sense of limited reality, aconvincingness-what Panofsky calls an "honest
straightforward veracity" to Biblical events staged in
an environment with such details as casually hungaltar cloths, crumpled pillows, seats, thrones, lecterns,
altars, chalices, grassy turf, and clumpy trees. All
elements are depicted in an appealing pictorial man
ner and with a sense of visual delight in nuances of
shading and color, tight but convincing space arrangements, fluid draperies, expressive faces, and
subtle contrasts between figures in action and those
whose movement has been arrested.
The debt which Bondol and his atelier of giftedminiaturists owe to Jean Pucelle (active ca.1319
1328) is considerable. Pucelle made pioneering con
tributions in his use of grisaille, plastic drapery,
stage-like space settings, and psychological observa
tion. Bondol learned and utilized a great deal from
Pucelle; in fact, his style must be understood in part
against the Pucelle tradition. However, Bondol
changes and alters this inheritance to fit his own aims,
especially in the direction of greater vigor and in
creased observation of nature including its rustic as
pects. Bondol even takes plastic modeling a step
further inmore consistently including the whole fig
ure. He abandons Pucelle's delicate elegance and
injects new life in place of the waning Pucelle tra
dition of his own day.
Ex collections: Library of the Dukes of Gotha, Germany;
Earl of Denbigh, England; Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Mrs.
Gordon Mathias, England; H. P. Kraus, New York. Exhibi
tions: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gothic Art 1360-1440
(Cleveland, August 8-September 15, 1963), #11, repr. in
color. Bibliography: Rudolf Ehwald, "Uber eine franzosische
Missalhandschrift des XIV. Jahrhunderts," Beitrage zum
52
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Bibliotheks-und Buchwesen (Paul Schwenke gewidmet),
(1913), pp. 67-75, pl. 6; Solomon Reinach, in Revue archeo
logique, IV, ser. VII (1906), 351-352; Earl of Denbigh (sale:
Sotheby and Co., London, April 3, 1950, lot 1, repr.); Mrs.
Gordon Mathias (sale: Sotheby and Co., London, June 5,
1961, lot 177, repr., fol. l1r in color); Catalogue 100 (NewYork, H. P. Kraus, 1962), pp. 32-39, pls. XXIV-XXVII and
4-color illustrations on pp. 33, 36-38; William D. Wixom, "A
Missal for a King," CMA Bulletin, L (September 1963), 158
173, 186-187 repr. in color.
8 HOURS OF
CHARLES THE NOBLE
For Paris use. Vellum, Latin text and French calendar
written in brown, red, blue, and gold, illuminated with
tempera and burnished gold leaf, 334 leaves numbered on
both sides 1 to 668, 7-5/8 x 5-1/2 inches. France, Paris,
ca.1410. Illuminated by Zebo da Firenze, an Italian il
luminator, and by the Egerton Master, a Franco-Nether
landish illuminator. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr.
and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 64.40
This newly-purchased manuscript, a Book of Hours,was executed in Paris about 1410 as a private devo
tional book for Charles III (1361-1425), King of
Navarre, also Count of Evreux, and called Charles
the Noble. Charles' coat of arms is repeated beneath
each of the twenty-five, half-page miniatures and in
one place is given an entire page. The decoration of
miniatures and ornament is the result of the collab
oration of two or more artists. The two most important of these reflect the international currents in
French court art in the first decades of the fifteenth
century. We know the name of the first artist from
his signature which appears on page 414: "Zebo da
Firenze dipintore" (cf. p. 43). This miniaturist, an
Italian working inParis, was responsible for twenty of
the miniatures, all twelve of the small scenes of the
labors of the month in the Calendar, sixty-nine his
toriated initials, the heavily foliated and inhabited
borders which surround all twenty-five miniatures,and countless marginal grotesques and droleries in
serted for the amusement and additional delight of
the owner of themanuscript. Zebo, who also worked
for the famed John, Duke of Berry (d. 1416), maybe seen at his best in his miniatures in this book. Here
he shows a careful adaptation of architectural-space
settings most often associated with Italian panel and
9 Page 395: miniature showing the Descent from
the Cross [enlarged] by the Egerton Master.
fresco painting since the time of Giotto (1276-1336).
Inventions of this sort had already reached Paris in
the art of Jean Pucelle (active ca.1319-1328), but
Zebo's work represents a second wave coming at the
height of the International Style, the subject of a
recent special exhibition (see CMA Bulletin, L [Sep
tember 1963 ] ). According to Mr. Porcher of the Bib
liotheque Nationale, Zebo's heavily foliated and flow
ered borders may have inspired the famous Limbourg
Brothers who also worked for the Duke of Berry.
Therefore, Zebo may be considered in part as a con
veyor of Italianate elements into the complex artistic
currents in France when artists from the Netherlands
as well as Italy were gathered to work for various
members of the Valois family, including Charles V of
France (d. 1380), Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy
(d. 1404), and the previously mentioned John, Duke
of Berry.
53
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Zebo is also remarkable for his observation of
nature and of rustic details in landscape settings. In
these he seems to have adapted to his Italian sensi
bility elements from Netherlandish traditions represented byMelchior Broederlam's painted altar wingsinstalled at Champmol in 1399 for the Duke of Bur
gundy.The name of the second artist who worked on the
Hours of Charles the Noble is unknown. Historians
have named him the "Egerton Master" after a groupof his manuscript paintings in the British Museum.
Five of the miniatures in the present manuscript are
by him, and they fall within the Franco-Netherland
ish traditions of the time. The Egerton Master possessed a keen dramatic or narrative sense and an
ability to convey distance in landscapes by atmos
pheric perspective and stippled brush technique. At
his finest moments as in the miniature showing the
Descent from the Cross he conveys an ineffable feel
ing of pathos and tragedy. The Hours of Charles the
Noble will be discussed more fully in a forthcoming
issue of the Bulletin.
Bibliography: Jean Porcher, Manuscrits et livres precieuxretrouves en Allemagne (Paris, 1949), Pt. II; Otto Pacht, in
Burlington Magazine, XCVIII (1956), 115, n. 24; Millard
Meiss, "The Exhibition of French Manuscripts of the XIII
XVI centuries at the Bibliotheque Nationale," Art Bulletin,
XXXVIII, 3 (September 1956), 194-195, fig. 7; Jean Porcher,French Miniatures from Illuminated Manuscripts (London,
1960), pp. 58-59, fig. 61; Millard Meiss, "French and Italian
Variations on an Early Fifteenth-century Theme: St. Jerome
and His Study," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, VIe Per., LXII(September 1963), 159, fig. 17.
9 MISSAL
For Carthusian use. Vellum, Latin written in two col
umns in brown and red, illuminated in tempera and gold
leaf, 250 leaves, 10-5/8 x 7-1/2 inches. Netherlands,
Utrecht or Guelders, ca.1430-5. Illuminated by theMaster of Zweder van Culemborg. Contemporary
stamped calf over wooden boards. Lent by The Walters
Art Gallery (W. 174)
9 Page 49: Hours of Charles the Noble,
Saint Matthew as a scribe and his symbol
by Zebo da Firenze.
titraf bt ft al tm ' bur .
T T
s as
tnAmtfe
Vim
uthe Mrtym Sa-inAgnes
lyte f d va Cl
iatures and fifty-nine historiated initials, is one of the
finest monuments of Netherlandish manuscript paint
A _#0
cai i' cad
9 Folio 180 verso: miniature showingthe Martyrdom of Saint Agnes
by theMaster of Zweder van Culemborg.
This Missal, profusely illustrated with fifty-six min
iatures and fifty-nine historiated initials, is one of the
finest monuments of Netherlandish manuscript paint
ing preserved today in America. The manuscript was
made ca. 1430-5 for Everardus von Greifenklau
(1400-1489), deacon at the Cathedral of Mainz and
canon atUtrecht. It was illuminated for themost part
by a painter known as the Master of Zweder van
Culemborg after his work in another Missal com
pleted around 1425 for Zweder, Bishop of Utrecht.
Dorothy Miner has pointed out that this master
should be considered more in terms of a painter than
55
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aminiaturist despite the fact that all of his acceptedwork appears on the restricted scale of theminiatur
ist. His painterly interests can be seen again and
again in the way he builds up mass and models
drapery, flesh, and facial features in terms of minute
yet vigorous strokes and variations of color and light.We can see how much more expressive and subtle
the Zweder Master can be in this respect when we
compare his work with that of a contemporary
countryman, theMaster of Otto van Moerdrecht. A
fine example of the latter artist may be seen in the
large frontispiece for the Canon of the Mass ex
cerpted from a Missal on view inGallery I (CMA
Bulletin, L [April 1963], 58-64, repr. in color). TheMoerdrecht Master ismore decorative and economi
cal in his use of color and brush, and the result lacks
the expressiveness and profundity of the Zweder
Master's best miniatures.
Another vital aspect of the Zweder Master's ex
pressiveness and his painterly interests, lies in his
depiction and use of space. Miss Miner has also
shown that after about 1430 hebegins
to utilize a
device invented by the Master of Flemalle (active
ca.1410-1440) which accents the interior enclosure
of a room by opening a window upon a vista beyond.This device, coupled with suggested architectural
foreground settings, makes possible a sense of implied
space inmany otherwise crowded compositions.The Zweder Master's landscape spaces rarely de
pict settings available to him in his native country.
Rather they depend on inventions current in the min
iature painting of Netherlandish artists working in
Paris of twenty-five years earlier. The use of rolling
and rocky terrain in providing vistas on distant towns,
fortresses, and other episodes related to the primary
action may be seen, for example, in some of themin
iatures painted by the Egerton Master in the Hours
of Charles the Noble on view in the present exhibi
tion. The Zweder Master builds creatively on thisinheritance by his use of dramatic and varied light
ing of these landscape vistas. Miss Miner observes
that "the apparent fitfulness with which the light
picks up now the plants in the foreground or the
active figures, now a bare crag of rock, now a far-off
pasture with its sheep or a half-discerned tower,
endows the scene with amood of apprehension and
significance."
Ex collections: Heffner-Alteneck, Munich (sale April 6, 1904,
#500); J. Rosenthal, Munich. Exhibitions: Walters (1949),
#128, pl. XL1X; Rijksmuseum, Middeleeuwse Kunst der
Noordelijke Nederlanden (Amsterdam, 1958), #154, figs. 78
80. Bibliography: De Ricci, I, p. 776; K. de Wit, "Das Horar
ium der Katherina von Kleve .. ."; Jahrbuch der Preussischen
Kunstsammlungen, LVIII (1937), 122; A. W. Byvanck, La
Miniature dans les Pays-Bas septentrionaux (Paris, 1937),p. 66, n. 3; idem, "Kroniek der noord-nederlandsche Minia
turen," Oudheidkundig Jaarbock, 111 (1940), 36-37; Charles
Sterling, La peinture fraincaise (1942), p. 17, no. 10; A. W.
Byvanck, De middelseenwse boekillustratie in de noordelijkeNederlanden (Antwerp, 1943), p. 285; Erwin Panofsky, "Guel
ders and Utrecht," Konsthistorisk Tidskrift XXII, nos. 3-4
(December 1953), 97-99; idem, Early Netherlandish Painting
(Cambridge, Mass., 1953), pp. 102 (n.4), 103; Dorothy
Miner, "Dutch Illuminated Manuscripts in the Walters Art
Gallery," The Connoisseur Year Book, 1955 (London, 1955),
pp. 70-74; Diringer, p. 443, pl. VII, 30d.
10 FRANCESCO PETRARCH:
TRIONFI
Vellum, Latin written in dark brown, red, blue and gold;illuminated in tempera and gold, 70 leaves, 8-1/4 x 5-1/2inches. Italy, Rome, ca.1480. Written by BartolommeoSanvita. Six full-page miniatures faced by six openingpages with historiated borders, illuminated by a Paduanartist and by the Florentine brothers Gherardo (ca.14441497) and Monte (1448-1529) di Giovanni, known as
Fora. Lent by The Walters Art Gallery (W. 755)
In the later fifteenth century Padua and Rome wit
nessed the development of a refined and handsome
group of humanistic manuscripts. In these, the styleof the title page and chapter beginnings were de
signed to suggest the illusion of pseudo-antique archi
tectural monuments made in the Mantegnesque
manner, of reliquary frames pre-figuring the style of
Riccio bronzes, of imitations of antique intaglios, and
of other fanciful and intriguing devices used as "gate
ways" to the text itself which was humanistic, too,
being in part a revival of Carolingian minuscule, the
script inwhich many classical texts had been found.The present manuscript is one of the finest ex
amples of such books produced in Rome. The scribe
10 Folio 23 recto: opening page for the
Triumph of Chastity, illuminated byan anonymous Paduan artist.
56
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V: j
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10 Folio 59 verso: frontispiece for
the Triumph of Time illuminated by
Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni (Fora).
was Bartolommeo Sanvita. The text is the famous
Trionfi by Petrarch (1304-1374), the earliest andone of the most revered Italian humanists. Each
"Triumph" isbegun with a splendid frontispiece illus
tration and an opening page with borders in fully-de
veloped "antique" style. This style in actuality was
not ancient Greek or Roman but a new creation,
being a tasteful and imaginative combination of ele
ments from many sources. A very fine, anonymousPaduan artist executed the first
groupof these decora
tions whereas the remainder of the book was deco
rated in a similar but more colorful manner by two
well-known Florentine brothers, Gherardo andMonte
di Giovanni, known as Fora. As a group these dec
orated pages have a delicacy, intimacy, and fanciful
ness which is a delight to behold and must have certainly pleased the cultural sensibility of the humanists
of the time.
The Cleveland Museum owns several superb singleminiatures which display similar phases of the Italian
Renaissance. Most notable is a miniature attributed
toMantegna (1431-1506) and another by Attavante
degli Attavanti (1452-1517) which may be seen in
Gallery 18 (CMA Bulletin, XXXIX [September1952], 172-174, repr. p. 169 in color).
Ex collections: Sir George Holford (sale, Sotheby, July 29,
1929, lot 6, plates II, III); Harvey Frost. Exhibitions: Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Illuminated Manu
scripts (London, 1908), #194 and pl. 23. Bibliography: Bond
(1962), p. 199, no. 571.
11 FOUR GOSPELS
Vellum, Latin written inblack, illuminated with temperaand gold leaf, 216 leaves, 9 x 6-1/2 inches. Germany,
Middle Rhine, ca.1480. Miniatures by theMaster of theHausbuch. Contemporary blind-stamped leather binding.The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. andMrs. William H.Marlatt Fund 52.465
Each of the four Gospels is preceded by a portrait
miniature of the appropriate evangelist. These miniatures were painted by the celebrated Master of the
Hausbuch (Housebook), who made the volume of
lively drawings in the possession of Prince Waldburg
Wolfegg-Waldsee. The artist is also responsible for
some ninety copper engravings preserved chiefly in
Amsterdam and therefore has been called on occasion
theMaster of the Amsterdam Cabinet. He was also a
panel painter. He was active chiefly in the MiddleRhine.
The style of the miniatures in this manuscript is
characteristically German late Gothic in its expressive use of angular drapery and semi-realistic detail.
However, each portrait miniature bears all the hall
marks of the Hausbuch Master's own hand. The
walled-off space setting for each figure, the interest in
thehomely
details of furniture construction andthe58
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Ii I
11 Foliosm 85lms & 86 :!ct opening pagesor ai ':
dbA.1m3t88S6W psihhdaydididg eyesd -
jru
"i.t.4idw WSO
with frontispiece portraity theMaster of theHausbuch.
artist with humor, although he is not as wild here as
he is in his youthful drawings in the Hausbuch
proper. Yet his illuminations in this Gospel Book
avoid the severity of his panel paintings which verge
on harshness. Here his expressive style has been
given a certain restraint and more subtle color.
The decoration of the remainder of the book, the 4pen work, tracery and vine scrolls, as well as the
handsome large initials must be attributed to other,
bo ~~rulr ~OPS~~r)~~t~~miiht?~~77
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i; t~~~~~~~~~~~~~da~~~~~~b~~~~wr~~Foio 5 ero& 6 eto oein pgs orte ose AcodngtoSin Lk
handsomelarge initialsmust be attributed o other, CIB "
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(E go . I
11 Folio 2 verso: frontispiece portrait ofSaint Matthew by the Master of the Hausbuch.
but still capable, hands. The script itself is a fine late
Gothic hand, regular and clear throughout. As a
book thismanuscript has a remarkable cohesive bal
ance between picture, text, initial, and margin which
in no ways belies the skill and taste of earlier Medi
eval book productions.
The binding is the original one, a superb examplewith blind-stamped leather covers with old brass
clasps.
Ex collections: Chartreuse of Coblentz; Count von Renesse,Schloss Burresheim, Kreis Mayen; Otto Wertheimer, Paris;Heinrich Eisemann, London. Bibliography: William M. Mil
liken, "An Illuminated Manuscript by the Master of the
Hausbuch," CMA Bulletin XL, pt. 1 (June 1953), 121, 122;
repr. 116 and 117; Alfred Stange, Deutche Malerei der Gotik
(Munich and Berlin 1955), pp. 105, 120, repr. pl. 286.
12 HOURS OF FERDINAND V
AND ISABELLA OF SPAIN
Vellum, Latin written in red and dark brown, illuminatedin tempera and gold, 298 leaves, 8-7/8 x 6-1/8 inches.
Flanders, Ghent-Bruges School, ca.1492-1504. Miniatures attributed toAlexander Bening and Gerard Horenbout. The Cleveland Museum of Art, purchase, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Bequest 63.256
This manuscript is the third royal manuscript in the
permanent collection of The Cleveland Museum of
Art. The coat of arms on folio 1 verso is that of Fer
dinand and Isabella when both were sovereigns of all
their kingdoms and after the conquest of Granada.
This suggests that the manuscript was ordered andstarted between 1492 and 1504 when Isabella died.
The character of the script and the decoration pointsto a Flemish origin. The decoration, including fortynine full-page miniatures and thirty-four smaller
miniatures, was created by two of the best painters of
the Ghent-Bruges school, notably Alexander Beningwith the assistance of Gerard Horenbout. These
painters continued in the tradition of the great Flemish panel painter, Hugo van der Goes, active inGhent
beginning in 1467 and died in 1482 near Bruges.Such dependence upon the larger media of panel
painting reverses the situation found in earlier periodsof manuscript painting. There is no lessening of
quality, however, in key manuscript monuments of
this later period. It is important to note the developments of
space
and
modeling
and thechange
in the
character of the enframing borders. The miniatures
themselves show a succession of space recessions
even into the far distance. The figures which peoplethese intervals are three dimensional and move easilyin the space. Some, as one of the Shepherds in the
Nativity scene (fol. 126 verso) or the soldiers in the
Massacre of the Innocents (fol. 146 verso), seem to
even catapult themselves through space. The enfram
ing borders are decorated with the realistically yet
exquisitely painted flowers, foliage, and insects. These
are depicted as if they casually lay on the surface of
the page itself, so that for the first time we can see
enacted on the page, to quote Dr. Otto Pacht, "two
kinds of illusion: the illusion of the picture frame
and the illusion of the picture recession." Facingthese pages are pages with similar or contrasting
borders which enclose blocks of text. The balance is60
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till
12 Folios I verso & 2 recto: Coat of Arms of Ferdinand V and Isabella of Spain and calendar for January.
one of brilliant contrast of motive, color, and texture.
Recent scholarship has proposed that the much dis
cussed but anonymous Master of Mary of Burgundywas in actuality Alexander Bening, sometimes called
Sanders Bening. This identification is based on cer
tain documents and circumstances concerning Alex
ander Bening which strongly correspond with ele
ments in the art and activity of the formerly anonymous Master of Mary of Burgundy. Alexander
entered the Ghent painters' guild in 1469. He had the
backing of Hugo van der Goes, who had joined the
same guild in 1467, and Joos vanWassenhove (Justus
van Ghent). Alexander married Catheleen van der
Goes, Hugo's niece, in 1480. Catheleen died in 1519.
This marriage produced a son, born in 1482 or 1483,thewell-known illuminator Simon Bening, who often
repeated the inventions of the Master of Mary of
Burgundy, whose workshop he probably inherited.
The inventions and style of the Master of Mary of
Burgundy in turn were strongly dependent on that of
Hugo van der Goes. Thus Alexander Bening and the
Master of Mary of Burgundy can be considered tenta
tively as one and the same person.The present manuscript holds a high place within
the larger group of manuscripts produced by artists
of the Ghent-Bruges school. In fact, it is comparablein quality to two of the most famous of these, the
Breviary in the Mayer van der Bergh Museum in
Antwerp and the Breviary of Eleanor of Portugal in
the Morgan Library in New York. The Cleveland
manuscript must antedate both of these, especiallybecause of its style. For example, many more echoes
61
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rl,
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itii
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!~iS;i~ii~i~0ti
?[W. o f im c lT_
:. ...,ii.1f.ln filo. ;luio _
"~;' :j': 'i jc ltr~qutiofnqtionm.n1
3P'I' A filIIpfIno
lli 'i'
mzl ,, ois,.~lr. wit j ,;
iii IIo III
12 ABOVE' Folios 126 verso& 127 recto: showing the Nativity.
LEFT: Folio 146 verso: Massacre of the Innocents and Flight into Egypt.
and adaptations of the inventions of Hugo van der
Goes are found in its miniatures. The scene of the
Adoration of Shepherds or Nativity (fol. 126 verso)
derives in part from Hugo's paintings of this subject,the Portinari Altarpiece in Florence and another
composition preserved in Berlin. In 1962 Dr. Fried
richWinkler suggested that after the death of Hugo,Alexander started to follow his uncle's more expan
sive figure style. Winkler states that Alexander'sminiatures took on larger relative dimensions than
before as in the Prayer Book ofMaximilian inVienna
or the Breviary of Eleanor of Portugal inNew York.
The Cleveland manuscript seems to come at the point
just as this transition was getting under way. It con
tains on the one hand themore miniature-like scenes
associated especially with Dr. Otto Picht's more re
stricted view of theMaster of Mary of Burgundy and
on the other, the large-scale figures of the artist's later
or second period proposed byWinkler. Indeed, cer
tain inventions seem to be the early prototypes for
compositions which are repeated later, either byAlexander himself in his later phase or by one of his
assistants such as Gerard Horenbout, or by his son,Simon. This manuscript will be the subject of more
detailed study in a forthcoming issue of the Bulletin.
Bibliography: Jos6 Lazaro, "Le manuscrit du British Museum
initule 'Isabella Book' ou breviare d'Isabelle la Catholique,"Actes du Congres d'Historie de 'Art, Paris, September 26
October 5, 1921 (Paris, 1924), p. 280; idem, Un SuppuestoBreirario de Isabel la Catolica (Madrid, 1928), p. 7, no. 3.
WILLIAM D. WIXOM
Associate Curator of Decorative Arts
63
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