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St Dominic, historiated initial cut from a Dominican Choirbook [Eastern France, Alsace, perhaps Freiburg or Strasbourg, or southwest Germany, perhaps Baden-Württemberg, 2nd half 15th century]
Details
Anonymous Dominican nun
St Dominic, historiated initial cut from a Dominican Choirbook [Eastern France, Alsace, perhaps Freiburg or Strasbourg, or southwest Germany, perhaps Baden-Württemberg, 2nd half 15th century]
A charming example of the work of a 15th-century Dominican nun.
c.145x155mm, the reverse with snippets of text and music in square notation on four-line red staves, the initial ‘P’ doubtless introducing the rare chant ‘Praeco novus et celicus [...]’, used for the main feast of Dominic and of his Translation, the reverse has a blue and red initial introducing a passage of text and music in square notation on four-line staves for the same feasts: ‘Documentis [artium erudit]us satis transi[it] [...]’, trimmed to follow the outline of the initial and its penwork but cutting off the lower stem (some show-through from the reverse). Provenance: (1) Probably illuminated by a Dominican nun, to judge by the style and the origin of comparable manuscripts. (2) Sam Fogg, 2000. (3) Sotheby’s, 6 December 2016, lot 14.
The figure of St Dominic stands rather stiffly, like a puppet or doll, his white flesh only slightly modelled by a blush of pink to the cheeks; his large hands on the end of short arms loosely hold a silver walking-stick and his emblem, a bunch of lilies; he is set against a completely plain background but stands on a patch of grass filled with painted flowers. It is an appealing example of the sort of illumination often termed Nonnenarbeit, nuns’ work, which often carries an implication of amateurishness and naivety, as opposed to the sophistication of their professional male counterparts. Needless to say, the dismissive implications of such terminology have in recent decades been questioned and dispelled.
This cutting is probably from the same manuscript as two others depicting Dominican saints: Thomas Aquinas, Indianapolis Museum of Art (formerly owned by Eric Korner; sold at Sotheby’s, 3 April 1957, lot 54), and Peter Martyr (formerly Christie’s, 23 November 2010, lot 5). Perhaps also from the same volume are two complete leaves with historiated initials at the Metropolitan Museum (28.225.26 and 28.225.27; both reproduced online).
For other manuscripts illuminated in closely comparable styles, see J. Hamburger, ‘Magdalena Kremer, Scribe and Painter of the Choir and Chapter Books of the Dominican Convent of St Johannes-Baptista in Kirchheim unter Teck’, in The Medieval Book: Glosses from Friends & Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel , ed. by R.A. Linenthal et al., 2010, p. 124–49 (this discusses the work of a nun and later prioress who arrived at Kircheim, south of Stuttgart, from Silo in Séléstat, between Colmar and Strasbourg), and Krone und Schleier, exh. cat., 2005, no. 467, attributed to Sibylla von Bondorf, of Freiburg and Strasbourg.
St Dominic, historiated initial cut from a Dominican Choirbook [Eastern France, Alsace, perhaps Freiburg or Strasbourg, or southwest Germany, perhaps Baden-Württemberg, 2nd half 15th century]
A charming example of the work of a 15th-century Dominican nun.
c.145x155mm, the reverse with snippets of text and music in square notation on four-line red staves, the initial ‘P’ doubtless introducing the rare chant ‘Praeco novus et celicus [...]’, used for the main feast of Dominic and of his Translation, the reverse has a blue and red initial introducing a passage of text and music in square notation on four-line staves for the same feasts: ‘Documentis [artium erudit]us satis transi[it] [...]’, trimmed to follow the outline of the initial and its penwork but cutting off the lower stem (some show-through from the reverse). Provenance: (1) Probably illuminated by a Dominican nun, to judge by the style and the origin of comparable manuscripts. (2) Sam Fogg, 2000. (3) Sotheby’s, 6 December 2016, lot 14.
The figure of St Dominic stands rather stiffly, like a puppet or doll, his white flesh only slightly modelled by a blush of pink to the cheeks; his large hands on the end of short arms loosely hold a silver walking-stick and his emblem, a bunch of lilies; he is set against a completely plain background but stands on a patch of grass filled with painted flowers. It is an appealing example of the sort of illumination often termed Nonnenarbeit, nuns’ work, which often carries an implication of amateurishness and naivety, as opposed to the sophistication of their professional male counterparts. Needless to say, the dismissive implications of such terminology have in recent decades been questioned and dispelled.
This cutting is probably from the same manuscript as two others depicting Dominican saints: Thomas Aquinas, Indianapolis Museum of Art (formerly owned by Eric Korner; sold at Sotheby’s, 3 April 1957, lot 54), and Peter Martyr (formerly Christie’s, 23 November 2010, lot 5). Perhaps also from the same volume are two complete leaves with historiated initials at the Metropolitan Museum (28.225.26 and 28.225.27; both reproduced online).
For other manuscripts illuminated in closely comparable styles, see J. Hamburger, ‘Magdalena Kremer, Scribe and Painter of the Choir and Chapter Books of the Dominican Convent of St Johannes-Baptista in Kirchheim unter Teck’, in The Medieval Book: Glosses from Friends & Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel , ed. by R.A. Linenthal et al., 2010, p. 124–49 (this discusses the work of a nun and later prioress who arrived at Kircheim, south of Stuttgart, from Silo in Séléstat, between Colmar and Strasbourg), and Krone und Schleier, exh. cat., 2005, no. 467, attributed to Sibylla von Bondorf, of Freiburg and Strasbourg.
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