Beschreibung:

THE ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST, in a historiated initial on a leaf from the Hours of Catharina van Wassenaer, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum[Northern Netherlands, late 15th century (c. 1490s)]
a leaf, c. 140 × 110mm, 17 lines written in a fine lettre bâtarde script, the text comprising the start of Compline in the Hours of the Cross, beginning ‘Converte nos deus salutaris noster’, the text introduced by a HISTORIATED INITIAL ACCOMPANIED BY A THREE-SIDED BORDER INCORPORATING THE INITIALS ‘J’ AND ‘I’ JOINED BY A LOVE-KNOT, the initial depicting the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, Joseph of Arimathea, and one other man placing the dead Christ in the tomb, the tomb inscribed with Joseph’s name: ‘IOSEP ARM[...]’, the scatter border filled with flowers, insects, and birds, on a gold ground, the upper margin with the initials of the patrons (see Provenance) and the lower border with a man with a lance fighting a dragon; light creases causing some pigment-loss, but generally in good condition, in a giltwood framE
PROVENANCEProbably written for lohanna van Halewijn, whose initial ‘I’ is joined to the ‘J’ of her husband, Jan van Wassenaer, viscount of Leiden, in the border of the present leaf and others. The fact that lohanna was from the southern Netherlands probably explains why the Hours follow the use of Rome (not Utrecht) and are in Latin (not Dutch), despite the fact that the calendar is, as appropriate for a resident of Leiden, for the Use of the diocese of Utrecht. The book was doubtless given by Iohanna to her daughter:Catharina van Wassenaer (1495?–1538), on the occasion of her marriage in 1514 to Joost van Cruyningen, Burggraf of Zeeland (d. 1543), at which time their heraldic arms were added to the page with the start of a suffrage to St Catherine (fol. 73r), Catharina’s name-saint.Part of the manuscript was later in the library of the Dukes of Arenburg, and was offered for sale by Jacques Seligman in 1952; it was subsequently sold in our rooms, 6 December 1971, lot 56; 11 December 1979, lot 60; and 25 June 1985, lot 108, where it was bought by Leiden University (BPL 3091; on which see Broekhuijsen, 2009, no. 35). Another 23-leaf portion (including the present leaf) was owned by:Frans Claes (1860–1933), curator of the Antwerp Vleeshuismuseum; in his private museum ‘De gulden spoor’ (Dunucé, 1832), closed at his death in 1933.Sold in our rooms, 10 July 1972, lot 37; bought by Alan Thomas (1911–1992).Paul Frederick Spear Doble: his bookplate on the reverse of the frame.Sold in our rooms, 5 July 2016, lot 14, bought by:The Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 1432.
ILLUMINATIONIt has become customary to refer to most Dutch styles of illumination with a plural – ‘Masters’ rather than Master – as in the present case, where the illumination of the Hours of Catharina van Wassenaer has been attributed either to the Masters of the Cornelius Croesinck (Broekhuijsen, 2003, p. 70), or more specifically to the Masters of Catharina van Wassenaer (Marrow et al., 1990, p. 286 and no. 103). Both these designations are sub-groups of a more general style of illumination, very popular at the end of the 15th century, known as the Masters of the Dark Eyes.
REFERENCESJ. Denucé, Gedenkboek Frans Claes: Museum ‘De gulden spoor’ te Antwerpen (Antwerp, 1932), pp. 153–54 no. 6 and fig. 54.1.
Jacques Seligman & Co., Inc., Illuminated Manuscripts (11th through the 16th Century) from the Bibliothèque of their Highnesses the Dukes d’Arenberg (New York, 1952), no 26.
J.H. Marrow et al., The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting (New York, 1990).
K.H. Broekhuijsen, ‘The Reconstruction of the Book of Hours of Catharina van Wassenaer’, Quaerendo, 33 (2003), pp. 54–76, the present leaf (‘location unknown’) reproduced as fig. 6.
K.H. Broekhuijsen, The Masters of the Dark Eyes: Late Medieval Manuscript Painting in Holland (Turnhout, 2009).