Miniatures

This large leaf in excellent condition is illustrated with two miniatures on the front and reverse sides.  On the recto, for the Feast of the Holy Trinity appears the Trinity, the God the Father and the Son seated on a grey bench with the Holy Spirit (the dove) between them, the scene set against a gold scroll background.  On the verso, four Cistercian monks take part in a Procession of the Holy Sacrament illustrating the Mass of Corpus Christus.  The subject, while appropriate for the text, is an unusual one in illumination.

Six sister leaves from this refined Missal have been identified, and several of them include Cistercian monks as does the present leaf (cf. also the Nativity of St. Bernard of Clairvaux with the founder of the Cistercian Order preaching to a group of his monks and the Mass of the Virgin with a Cistercian monk kneeling before the enthroned Virgin and Child). Mireia Castaño rightly places this group of seven leaves within the production of the Savoyard milieu and the environment of the Master of the Roman de la Rose of Vienna. More specifically, Castaño attributes these leaves to the Master of the Bonivard Missal, active in Geneva in the second half of the fifteenth century.  This Master was originally named after a Missal painted for Urbain de Bonivard, Prior of Saint Victor in Geneva (Bibliothèque de Genève, MS lat. 30b). He also executed an important Missal commissioned by Jean IV de Montchenu (1442-1506), now in Paris, at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal (MS 619).

The coat-of-arms in the border of a sheet from the Feast of Epiphany seems to show a tour d'argent, un avant-mur du même, le tout maçonné de sable. An exact identification of the coat-of-arms has not been possible to date, but several hypotheses, located in the Savoyard region, are likely possible. Certain liturgical peculiarities, as well as the punctus flexus system of punctuation, suggest a Cistercian origin. 

The lively decoration of these leaves adorned with elegant ivyleaf sprays also includes fauna and floral motifs on considerable variety.  A similar style appears in the borders of two detached leaves from a Savoyard Missal attributed by François Avril to the illuminator Antoine de Lonhy, the Saluces Master, in Les Manuscrits à peinture en France, 1140-1520, pp. 211-7, no. 118 A and B (now Prague, National Gallery, inv. K-36880 and Los Angeles, The Getty Museum, MS 69; 2001.84).

Provenance:

London, Sotheby’s, 5 December 1995, lot 8 (sold with three other leaves:  The Adoration of the Magi, St. Bernard Preaching and a Cistercian Monk Kneeling before the Virgin and Child);

St. Louis, Missouri, Private Collection of Kenneth and Elizabeth Teasdale.

Sister Leaves:

Annunciation, London, Sotheby’s, 7 December 1992, lot 7; Les Enluminures, Cat. 3, 1994, no. 23.

Two text leaves with Deer (1) and Fighting Dogs (2), London, Sotheby’s, 7 December 1992, lot 7; Les Enluminures, Cat. 3, 1994, no. 24.

Cistercian Monk Kneeling before the Enthroned Virgin and Child, Les Enluminures, Cat. 5, no. 17b, 1996; New York, Bonhams, 25 June to 8 July 2020, lot 12.

Nativity of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, London, Sotheby’s, 5 December 1995, lot 8.

Adoration of the Magi, Les Enluminures, Cat. 5, 1996, no. 17a (with coat-of-arms).

We are grateful to Alix Buisseret for her expertise.

Literature:

F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, pp. 211-7.

Mireia Castaño, Le Maître du Roman de la Rose de Vienne, Milan, 2022, p.102

Mireia Castaño, “Aux confins de la Savoie et du Lyonnais. Un Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Raciodu Maître du Prince de Piémont,” Rivista di Storia della Miniatura 26 (2022), pp. 142-153. 

MIN 50453