Anonymous Spanish artist
JONAH IN PRAYER, initial on a bifolium from a Giant Bible [Spain, ?Castile, c. 1300]
A bifolium taken from a turn-of-the-14th-century Giant Spanish Bible. The illumination, depicting Jonah being commanded by God to go to the city of Nineveh to prophesy against it, shows the influence of styles current in France, but the script and decorative features point to northern Spain. The vibrant yet nuanced palette of pinks, reds, blues and greens, the striking diapered backgrounds and delicate scrolling infills, and the stylised figures with their formulaic postures are also features of a Castilian Missal at the Victoria and Albert Museum (see R. Watson, Western Illuminated Manuscripts, 2015, cat. no 17).

Provenance:
•The present bifolium, and the other two in the sale that accompany it, was evidently used as a binding fragment, likely for archival material: 19th-century titles (‘Vitoria: Clausula del testamento de Dn. Ignazio Luis de Arcaya’). Three other bifolia from the same manuscript were sold at Christie's, 13 July 2016, lots 103-105.

390 x 270mm. Ruled space: 250 x 160mm., one historiated and four illuminated initials. The text runs non-consecutively from the very end of the book of Obadiah 'possidebit civitates Austri [...]' and opening the beginning of the book of Jonah, to the beginning of the prologue of the book of Habakkuk 'ad finem rectum [...]'.

Please note this lot is the property of a private consignor.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.