Anonymous northern Swiss or southern German artist

RESURRECTION and TRINITY, two initials cut from a gradual [diocese of Konstanz, 1st half 14th century]
Two striking historiated initials painted in the first half of the 14th century for a religious house in the diocese of Konstanz, where northern Switzerland meets southern Germany, cut from what must have been a de luxe manuscript.

The style of the illumination is related to that of manuscripts illuminated in the Bodensee regions, neighbouring Lake Constance, from the second half of the 13th century to the first half of the 14th century (these manuscripts are discussed in detail by C.M. Kessler, ‘Gotische Buchmalerei des Bodenseeraumes’, in Buchmaleri im Bodenseeraum, 1997); here, the stocky figures – with slightly bulbous foreheads, and cheeks and lips marked with splashes of red – apparently reflect the later stylistic developments of this period. The Heidelberg Codex Manesse (University of Heidelberg Library, Cod. Pal. Germ. 848), a Liederhandschrift (volume of song and poetry) produced in Zurich c. 1300-c. 1340, represents the pinnacle of this group, while the present initials appear closer to certain manuscripts illuminated c. 1300-c. 1330 that are associated with the Benedictine Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland. In particular, there are stylistic similarities that can be drawn with three psalter manuscripts made c. 1330, two held at the British Library and one in the John Rylands Library, Manchester (BL Add. Ms. 22279 and 22280 and John Rylands Ms. lat. 95): in the saturated pigments – blue for the ground, often juxtaposed with red – and the type of pattern that borders the miniatures, the decoration of these psalters bears clear comparison with our choirbook initials.

Provenance:
•A monk wearing a white cloak over a dark habit appears at the bottom right of the initial ‘R’, offering a clue as to the religious house that commissioned the parent manuscript from which these initials came: the Carmelite friars are known to have worn such a habit.
•Private collection, London.

‘R’: 95 x 88mm., ‘S’: 95 x 80mm. ‘S’ most likely opening the introit for the mass of Pentecost, ‘Spiritus domini replevit’, ‘R’ most likely opening the introit for mass of Easter Day, ‘Resurrexi’. Mounted.

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.