Regensburg School
St Bartholomew, historiated initial 'E' on a leaf from an Antiphonal on vellum, Regensburg, c.1310

An engaging miniature of Saint Bartholomew painted in the 'Sweet Style', once belonging to an important Franciscan Antiphonal of which twenty leaves are known today.

445 x 375mm. The initial 'E' with St Bartholomew forming the incipit, 'Ecce ego', from the Common of the Apostles, sung for all apostolic feasts during the liturgical year. Reverse with 8 lines of text and music on a red stave, large initial 'V': 'Venite adoremus Venite Eterna Christi'. Mounted and framed.

Provenance:
(1) The leaf comes from a much-studied Antiphonal created for a Franciscan house in Regensburg, probably the convent of St Clare (Kidd 2019, p.216). For decades this manuscript was believed to have originated in the Dominican convent of Heilig Kreuz and later sold to the antique book dealer Alfred Coppenrath after the monastery’s dissolution in 1876. However, a rubric from the first leaf of the volume (Stockholm, SNM, E.E. Med.2) specifically mentions St Francis ('Ab isto die usque ad octavam epiphanie […] de apostolis, nec de beato Francisco, nec de pace […]') (Nordenfalk 1979) making this assertion unlikely. A recently discovered catalogue from a Parke-Bernet auction in New York, reveals that the Antiphonal was purchased by the Brummer Gallery on March 5, 1945. The catalogue describes the manuscript as bound in light brown pig skin, with 314 leaves on heavy vellum and 18 large miniatures. Between 1945 and 1953, the manuscript was dismembered. Raphael Stora, a New York dealer, loaned four leaves from the Antiphonal to an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1953 and began offering individual leaves for sale in 1954. The present leaf is f.247 of 314. The name 'Gerwirch' appears on a sister leaf in the Pierpont Morgan Library (MS M. 870.2), likely identifying the donor.

(2) Private Swiss Collection.


Sister leaves:
Nineteen sister leaves from the parent manuscript have been identified.

1. Vespers before the first Sunday in Advent (Stockholm Nationalmuseum, E.E. Med.2).
2. A King or Prophet (Stockholm Nationalmuseum, E.E. Med.1).
3. The Nativity, Dec. 25 (The Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.870.1).
4. The Stoning of St Stephen, Dec. 26 (Private Collection, formerly Ferrini & Fogg, 1989, no 8).
5. Sts John and James, Dec. 27 (Private Collection, formerly Ferrini & Fogg, 1989, no 9).
6. Massacre of the Innocents, Dec. 28 (Private Collection, see Kidd 2019, no 55).
7. The Circumcision of Christ, Jan. 1 (The Walters Art Museum, MS W.754.A).
8. Baptism of Christ, Jan. 6 (Stockholm Nationalmuseum, E.E. Med.3).
9. Creation of Eve, Septuagesima Sunday (Private Collection).
10. Christ on the Mount of Olives, Maundy Thursday (Private Collection, formerly Sotheby’s July 8, 2014, lot 25).
11. Crucifixion, Good Friday (Private Collection, formerly Sotheby’s, July 8, 2014, lot 26).
12. St Andrew, Nov. 30 (The Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.870.2).
13. St Agnes, Jan. 21 (The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.870.3).
14. Conversion of Paul, Jan. 25 (Stockholm Nationalmuseum, E.E. Med.4).
15. Presentation in the Temple, Feb. 2 (Harvard University, Houghton Library MS Typ 961).
16. Sts Agatha and Lucy, Feb. 5 (Private Collection, formerly Philippe Verdier).
17. Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter, Feb. 22 (Walters Art Museum, MS W.754B).
18. The Annunciation, Mar. 25 (Seattle Museum of Art, 55.30).
19. Beheading of St Katherine, Nov. 25 (Private Collection).

Illumination:
The miniature is typical of Regensburg illumination of the 14th century, sometimes referred to as the 'Sweet Style' in which figures are painted with chubby, restrained faces in a light colour palette (Suckale 2010). The miniature also reveals borrowings from French art: the figures are articulated with strong black contours and the faces are gently modelled with pale flesh tones. St Bartholomew stands inside the 'E', inserting his hands through the open crossbar in a playful interaction between text and image. Typically, Bartholomew is depicted with a knife and a sheath of his own flayed skin, the symbols of his martyrdom, but here he is empty handed. The crossbar of the 'E', however, resembles a parchment stretcher used to spread animal skins and is likely a reference to both the materiality of the leaf and the saint’s own skin. Gold leaf has been applied to the interior of the initial while the exterior is framed in silver and a vibrant red border offset with pen flourishes. The remaining letters of the incipit as well as the first initial of each verse are painted in alternating shades of red and blue and embellished with pen flourishes. An initial 'V' on the recto is decorated with the figure of a nun in the center with two birds alighting on each ascender.

While the parent manuscript has generally been dated to around 1310, Peter Kidd has noted stylistic similarities with paintings from the late 13th century such as a Golden Legend from Prüfening Abbey (Munich, BSB, Clm. 13029) dated to 1282, a Lectionary made for Heilig Kruez (Oxford, Keble College MS 49) dated to 1276, and an Antiphonal made for Seligenthal Abbey (Munich, BSB Clm. 23046) dated between 1290-1300 (Kidd 2019, 218). The style also compares to similar developments of the 'Sweet Style' in Swiss monasteries such as Sankt Katharinental at the beginning of the 14th century.

Franciscan convent in Regensburg
New York, Parke-Bernet, 5 March 1945, lot 24
Brummer Gallery, New York
Raphael Stora, New York
Private Swiss Collection

For the parent manuscript, see: P. Kidd, The McCarthy Collection: Volume II, Spanish, English, Flemish and Central European Miniatures, London, 2019.

R. Suckale. '"The ‘Sweet Style" in Regensburg: An Addition to the Leaves from the Early Fourteenth-Century Antiphonary from the Dominican Convent of the Holy Cross', Harvard Library Bulletin 21.2 (2010), pp.45-52.

M. Harrsen, Central European Manuscripts in the Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York 1958, p.47.

D. Miner, 'Since de Ricci: Western Illumination Manuscripts Acquired Since 1934', Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 29/30 (1966/67), pp.87-90.

C. Nordenfalk, Bokmålningar från medeltid och renässans I Nationalmusei samlingar, Stockholm, 1979, no 10.

F. Mütherich and K. Dachs, Regensburger Buchmalerei, Munich, 1987, no 71 p. 88-89.

Online resources:
P. Kidd, Medieval Manuscripts Provenance: https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-brummer-gallery-archive-i.html

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