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Home , Jan van Eyck, Simon Marmion

SOME NEWLY DISCOVERED MINIATURES BY AND HIS WORKSHOP

THOMAS KREN

THE late D. H. Turner, Deputy Keeper in the 's Department of Manuscripts, besides having a deep interest in hturgical manuscripts, was also the inspiration for Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library. Opening in 1983 in Los Angeles and transferring subsequently to New York and London, the show celebrated the British Library's unparalleled collection of Flemish manuscripts along with its important French and Italian illumination of the period 1450-1575.^ During Derek Turner's stewardship of the collection of illuminated manuscripts, the Hours of William Lord Hastings, one of its greatest Flemish manuscripts, was bequeathed to the nation. He published it subsequently in facsimile.^ This study, dedicated to the memory of D. H. Turner, introduces a more recent addition to the Library's Flemish holdings (Add. MS. 71117; Plates I-IV, figs. 1-6). It is a rare and splendid series of eight hitherto unrecorded miniatures here ascribed to the celebrated painter and illuminator Simon Marmion and his workshop. As representative illumination from the first half of his career, the new leaves complement in particular the Huth Hours (Add. MS. 38126), a major book from the last decade of Marmion's life. The acquisition includes one miniature of each of the evangelists John, Luke, Matthew, and Mark along with a Presentation in the Temple, Flight into Egypt, King David in Prayer, and Raising of Lazarus (Plates I-IV, figs. 3-6). All have a similar type of architectural border, originally four-sided, though several ofthe borders are trimmed and incomplete (cf. esp. Plates II, IV; figs. 3, 4).^ All ofthe miniatures originally had text on the back and a few lines of text below the miniature, although here, too, not all of the latter survive. The eight miniatures form part of a collection of cuttings from illuminated manuscripts (now Add. MSS. 71117-71119) allocated in late 1992 to the British Library through the National Art Collections Fund from the estate of Miss Violeta Harris.^ The present state of the Marmion miniatures results from a complicated and intriguing history. After its completion in the third quarter of the fifteenth century, the now lost book that contained these miniatures underwent over a number of centuries a series of distinct and generally unrelated physical transformations. Prior to a discussion of the art historical significance of the eight miniatures, a look at these alterations will result in a clearer idea of the book's original appearance. 193 Fig. I. Four detached miniatures from a , with painted borders, in wooden frames. BL, Add. MS. 71117, ff. Fr, Gr, Jr, and Hr

At the time of its acquisition. Add. MS. 71117 appeared to consist of eight detached j leaves, each containing a miniature. Their architectural borders, which are not typical of \ fifteenth-century Flemish illumination, are painted mostly in brown tones. They feature ; classicizing motifs: engaged colonettes in blue and red supporting entablatures or flat mouldings, capitals decorated with acanthus, and pilasters dense with putti, acanthus I and other classical elements (fig. i). Each leaf was mounted in a modern wooden, moulded frame. Subsequent inspection of the eight leaves in the Department of Manuscripts has revealed that each of them actually consists of two cuttings joined to ; 194 i /^. 2. Reverse of miniatures in fig. i with text and personal insignia form one. The paired cuttings are equal in width, but the lower portion is considerably smaller than the upper. The larger contains the miniature and the upper portion of the architectural border on one side, while the smaller one joined to it supports either an incipit with several lines of text and the base ofthe painted border - or only the painted lower border (cf. e.g., fig. i, Plate III, figs. 5, 6; then Plate II and fig. 4). The text is in Latin with some rubrics in French. That several of those pieces paired at the time ofthe donation do not belong together is confirmed by study of the text and painted motifs in the margins on the reverse of the cuttings. Mixing and matching of upper and lower sections must have resulted from a previous owner's desire to eliminate lines of text 195 Fig. 3. St Luke painting the Virgin and Child, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f. Br found below each miniature in order to have images independent of text and suitable for framing as pictures. The perpetrator of this mischief discovered that in several instances the remaining painted lower border did not always join seamlessly with the truncated upper portion, so he moved them around to make matches of tops and bottoms that were more successful in hiding his surgical manoeuvres. These choices had further consequences for the miniatures' state of preservation as we shall see below. While all but one (Plate IV) ofthe added lower borders are preserved, only four ofthe eight incipits that originally accompanied the Harris miniatures survive (Plates I, III; figs. 5, 6). Under the supervision of Janet Backhouse ofthe Department of Manuscripts, they have been restored beneath the appropriate miniature by British Library conservators (cf. e.g., fig. i with Plate III and figs. 5 and 6). Now we have a fuller idea 196 Fig. 4. St Mark writing, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f Dr

ofthe appearance ofthe page before it was cut up (Plates I, III; figs. 5, 6). A fifth scrap of text with lower border, uncovered behind David in Prayer (f. Jr, Plate IV) does not belong with any of the miniatures from the Harris donation. It is the incipit from the Hours ofthe Virgin at Tierce (now f. Er, fig. 10). As we shall see, the eight miniatures belong to a considerably more elaborate decorative cycle, and we need to look elsewhere for the miniature that would have illustrated Tierce. The evidence ofthe orphaned text fragment suggests that the mixing and matching occurred when a larger number of miniatures was still together. The eight miniatures form a stylistically coherent group. Marmion, who Uved in Valenciennes in northern France, was the leading illuminator and painter in this region 197 Fig. 5. Flight into Egypt, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f Gr for nearly forty years {circa 1450-89) and like most illuminators worked with a number of assistants. The painted frames of the miniatures are also stylistically consistent, but are a distinctly different matter from the miniatures they enclose (Plates I-IV, figs. 3-6). They depart both in colouring and in technique. The delicate brushwork and clear and subtle hues of the miniatures contrast with the muddy, generally opaque pigments and leaden handling of the border. Although the division of artistic labour in fifteenth- century books of hours sometimes resulted in striking contrasts between the artistic character of miniature and border, the specific style of these borders postdates the fifteenth century.'^ During the 1520s a lighter, more elegant type of architectural border using classicizing motifs was popular in the Loire Valley, especially in the extensive production of books of hours by the anonymous artists called the 1520s Hours 198 Fig. 6. Raising of Lazarus,, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f. Hr

Workshop.^ The borders in Add. MS. 71117, which constitute additions to the page, show a related, though less refined, type and are not necessarily derived from them. This comparison does however suggest that the architectural borders were added to the eight miniatures during the sixteenth century. The reverse of each miniature contains a prayer or devotional text that originally preceded or followed the miniature (figs. 2, 7 and 8). Distinctive painted borders surround the text pages, too, but, like the architectural borders, they were executed a generation or more later than the miniatures. Their interest lies in a choice of decorative motifs that comprise the earliest evidence of the parent manuscript's ownership. Two distinct but closely related types of decoration appear. One type (ff. Gv, Fv, Hv and Jv; 199 ^. 7. Text from Nones ofthe Hours ofthe Virgin. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f Fv fig. 7) consists ofthe initial /, often repeated several times, along with a thick double cord i that is regularly knotted and wends a sometimes looping path around the text. This is a variation ofthe emblematic single cordeliere^ which was popular in French manuscripts : during the first third of the sixteenth century. In 1498 the Queen Dowager, Anne of i Brittany (d. 1514), founded the Dames ofthe Cordeliere, an order of noble widows.^ • Anne, her daughter Claude of France, and eventually the members of the order incorporated the single cordeliere into their emblems. Francis I, after his coronation in | 1516 and in memory of Anne, added the double cordeliere^ arranged in a continuous ! figure 8, to the necklace of the chivalric order of St .^ i Shells with a pilgrim's staff also appear repeatedly in the British Library leaves j alongside the double cordeliere. They refer to St James the Greater (or St Jacques le \ \ 200 1 itfiii nnt cnw SieStt ci^ xvtc0

Majeur)^ after whom the great pilgrimage centre of Santiago de Compostela was named. The shell, which was also an emblem ofthe Order of St Michael, offers further evidence that this owner was a member of the French nobility. Though not the original owner, he or she had a group of emblems of personal significance added during the first third of the sixteenth century. The /, the pilgrim's staff, and the shell all suggest that this owner's name was Jacques. The second type of painted borders on the text pages (ff. Av, Bv, Cv and Dv; fig. 8) includes the shells and initial /s but the cordelieres are paired and separate rather than doubled. In the corners of the borders and at the centre of the upper margin, single cordelieres flank the initial /s and form an interlace that might represent a W and M. Its meaning remains to be deciphered. Although the cord in the double cordeliere of type one

201 appears notably thicker than the single ones, they must have been painted around the same time. Undoubtedly they were executed for the same owner. The eight miniatures represent one each ofthe evangelists John, Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Plates I, II; figs. 3,4), followed by four familiar religious subjects: the Presentation in the Temple, the Flight into Egypt, David in Prayer, and the Raising of Lazarus (Plates III, IV; figs. 5, 6). These subjects suggest that the leaves derive from a book of hours, an interpretation supported by the evidence of the texts found beneath the miniatures and on the other side ofthe leaves. The gospel extracts on the reverse ofthe evangelist miniatures are a nearly universal feature of books of hours in this period. The texts on the back ofthe Presentation in the Temple (Plate III) and the Flight into Egypt (fig. 5) are passages from the Hours ofthe Virgin, the core text ofthe book of hours and the devotions from which its name derives. The eight liturgical hours ofthe Church day are generally illustrated with eight episodes from the Life of the Virgin. The remaining two miniatures in the Harris group also illustrate devotions that are found in books of hours. The Seven Penitential Psalms are a standard feature of them; a portion of Psalm 6, the first of the seven, appears on the back of the David miniature (Plate IV). Notably less common but still appropriate to a book of hours are the Suffrages for All the Dead and for the Souls of Family Members accompanying the miniature of the Raising of Lazarus (fig. 6). The Raising of Lazarus is also a popular subject to illustrate the Office ofthe Dead, one ofthe standard texts of books of hours, but in this case our leaf differs from the norm. Whereas suffrages, or prayers of intercession, are a common feature of books of hours, the memorials included here for tous les trespasses and for souls of family members are unusual. Nonetheless the Raising of Lazarus is a logical choice to illustrate them. From the evidence ofthe two illustrations for the Hours ofthe Virgin alone, it is clear that the British Library's new cycle of miniatures is incomplete. Lacking from the standard sequence of illustrations to the core text are the , the Visitation^ the ,, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the , and a sixth illustration, probably the . In fact, the original book, as illuminated by Marmion, was likely more lavish still, since a book of hours ofthe type indicated by the quality and subject matter of these miniatures nearly always had illustrations to other standard texts such as the Office of the Dead and certain prayers to the Virgin Mary. The Print Cabinet of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam owns four miniatures in a similar format that are also attributed to Simon Marmion (figs. 9, 11-13). That they were painted by the same illuminator as the British Library leaves is attested by closely comparable figure types, colouring, and brushwork. The four miniatures also have comparable dimensions, the three largest being 9.9, 10.4 and 10.4 cm in height, and all four 7.7 or 7.8 cm wide. The British Library miniatures range in height from 9.6 to II cm and in width from 7.6 to 7.9 cm. The Rijksmuseum miniatures include two ofthe subjects that are here identified as lacking from the London series, the Annunciation to the Shepherds (fig. 9) and the Adoration ofthe Magi (fig. 11), along with two others that

202 Fig. g. Annunciation to the Shepherds, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, no. 7O.44r. By kind permission ofthe Rijksmuseum

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Fig. 10. Incipit of Tierce ofthe Hours ofthe Virgin. BL, Add. MS. 71117 f Er Ftg. II. Adoration ofthe Magi, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, no. 70.45V. By kind permission ofthe Rijksmuseum

would be fitting in a book of hours, a (fig. 12) and an illustration to the suffrage of a saint, here the Martyrdom of St Apollonia (fig. 13). It seems likely that the same accomplished Burgundian scribe who wrote the fine bdtarde letters on the British Library leaves executed the script on the reverse side ofthe Rijksmuseum miniatures. The latter also bear on the reverse emblems of ownership identical to those on the British Library cuttings. The initial /s and the looping double cord or portions of them painted by the same craftsman as in the British Library leaves are detectable in the upper margin above the partially trimmed text on the back of the miniatures. The Annunciation to the Shepherds now in the Rijksmuseum (fig. 9) customarily illustrates Tierce of the Hours of the Virgin, the incipit of which is the orphan text (f. Er, fig. 10) revealed by the recent restoration ofthe British Library leaves.

204 Fig. 12. Crucifixion, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, no. 70.46r. By kind permission ofthe Rijksmuseum

The two cuttings originally belonged to the same leaf Thus there can be no question that the twelve miniatures were once part of the same book. The incomplete cycle of miniatures in the British Library represents no more than half of the original pictorial cycle of what was once a particularly fine Burgundian book of hours. The book that contained these leaves included originally at least twenty miniatures. In addition to the Amsterdam miniatures and the four miniatures ofthe Life ofthe Virgin cycle that remain untraced, the cutting with the Martyrdom ofSt Apollonia offers evidence of another lost miniature. Lines from a suffrage of St Mary Magdalene are featured on the reverse. It is likely that such a memorial, which preceded the suffrage of St Apollonia in the original book, would have been illustrated too. With the Raising of Lazarus miniature we would thus have at least three illustrations to the section of suffrages. Since the most luxurious books of hours contained extensive illustrated cycles of suffrages, there may have been others in this cycle, perhaps only a few more, perhaps 205 Fig. IJ. Martyrdom of St Apollonia, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, no. 6i.ioov. By kind permission ofthe Rijksmuseum

many. Although the simplest type of books of hours illuminated by Marmion included approximately sixteen or seventeen miniatures (with few or no illustrated suffrages),; some manuscripts traditionally ascribed to him and his assistants, such as the Huth: Hours, contained as many as several dozen miniatures (with many illustrated suffrages).; Based upon the available evidence, a sketch of the book's decorative contents and the I texts they illustrate is proposed in the Appendix. ; As noted above, the painted architectural borders of the British Library miniatures j belong to a later moment than Marmion's art. (The text fragment of Tierce, f Er, that i originally accompanied the Annunciation to the Shepherds confirms that the Rijksmuseum • miniatures also bore the added sixteenth-century architectural borders: figs. 9, 10). i They have little in common with the borders normally found in the eleven or so \ surviving books of hours for which Marmion was the sole or primary illuminator. These I include rinceaux\ blue-and-gold acanthus (e.g., fig. 14), illusionistic borders on brightly; coloured grounds associated with the - school after 1475, and a Gothic style \ of architectural border. The last is more subdued in colouring and more delicately I painted than the example ofthe Harris borders. ** There are even several books of hours | by Marmion or his assistants that lack any decorative border at all. \ Janet Backhouse has recognized fragments of rinceaux in the region beneath the text; areas of the Flight into Egypt (fig. 5) and the Raising of Lazarus (fig. 6). This may bel 206 i Fig. 14. Raising of Lazarus, attributed to Simon Marmion. Berlaymont Hours: The Huntington Library, HM 1173, f 84r. By kind permission of The Huntington Library

interpreted in two ways: either the miniatures' original border consisted of rinceaux on all four sides or the fragments belong to a narrow band of rinceaux situated below the text and just above the area of lower border. Such narrow decorative bands are occasionally found in French and Flemish manuscripts of the fifteenth century. ^^ Examination ofthe reverse ofthe added architectural borders with the aid of transmitted 207 Fig. IS- Adoration of the Magi, attributed to Simon Marmion. Berlaymont Hours: The Huntington Library, HM 1173, f. 5or. By kind permission of The Huntington Library

light revealed no further rinceaux or other decorative elements. It seems quite possible, therefore, that the borders of this manuscript were originally unpainted. As noted above, several other books of hours by Marmion also lack border decoration/^ Their miniatures, however, are all in . Finally, to reconstruct accurately the history of the twelve miniatures, one other uncommon visual feature requires consideration. recently put 208 forward the suggestion that the Amsterdam miniatures are, in fact, unfinished.^^ She argued specifically that areas of drapery brushed sketchily in red, such as the cloth-of- honour in the Adoration ofthe Magi (fig. 11), and the mantles of St John the Evangelist and a soldier at the right in the Crucifixion (fig. 12), were never completed and reveal in these areas both underdrawing and 'a mid-stage of the work procedure'.^^ She is probably correct that the draperies in question are incomplete, but not because they are unfinished. Remarkably, most ofthe newly discovered London miniatures show drapery with similar contours and fold patterns rapidly brushed in deep red. As in the Amsterdam miniatures, the bulk of this drapery has a pale brown or vellum colour. Examples include the mantle of David kneeling (Plate IV), which is customarily entirely red; the robe of St Luke (fig. 3); the mantle of St John the Evangelist (Plate I); the mantle of the kneeling Mary in the Raising of Lazarus (fig. 6); and the mantles of a man to the left and a woman to the right in the Presentation in the Temple (Plate III). All of these miniatures have the curious appearance of being substantially finished while only the sketchy red and pale brown draperies appear unfinished. It seems odd that an illuminator would complete every aspect of a cycle of twenty-odd miniatures except the application of a final and substantial red glaze to isolated motifs of drapery in most of them. There is another explanation for this phenomenon. ^^ As noted above, the eight miniatures were all mounted and framed. Thus at some point in their history they were hung on walls and in all likelihood exposed to daylight. One of the most fugitive pigments of fifteenth-century northern painting is the vegetable substance called red madder. It is exceptionally light-sensitive.^^ The leaves would not need to have been exposed to strong light for very long in order to fade dramatically, while the other pigments in the miniatures, mostly mineral substances - being less light-sensitive- would have held up under the onslaught ofthe sun's rays. Still visible today in the mantle of St John (Plate I) and the man to the left in the Presentation (Plate III) are pale, partially faded highlights of golden brown, further evidence that these areas were brought to a finished stage.^^ In a similar way the unfinished character ofthe kneeling king's robe in the Adoration ofthe Magi (fig. 11) resulted from the fading of glazes, probably also of madder. A comparable alteration occurred in the now largely gold cloth- of-honour behind the Virgin in the St Luke miniature {fig. 3). The red madder tones that would have lent most of the red draperies their full colour have become completely transparent. Therefore Ainsworth is correct in suggesting that the surviving dark, sketchily applied reds represent an earlier stage in the painting of the miniature. They were intended as an underlayer that would define contours and shadow on the surface. Accordingly, they would have been partially visible through the paler red madder hues that the illuminator pulled over them. When the madder faded the underlayers were fully exposed. This is to my knowledge, the final significant physical alteration endured by the London/ Amsterdam miniatures since their completion in the fifteenth century. Thus the physical history of the London leaves and their parent manuscript, 209 starting in the sixteenth century, is exceptionally colourful and dramatic. In summation, I when the book of hours was completed, probably in the 1460s, it was fairly large, : measuring at least 16.8 x 13.7 cm and probably more. The current architectural borders \ are not original. They were added to an undecorated margin or perhaps were painted ; over borders of the rinceaux type. Probably at the same time, in the first third of the ; sixteenth century, the text pages received the additional embellishment of looping double I cordelieres, initial /s, and shells in reference to the book's then owner, a French noble. ! Eventually the leaves with miniatures were cut from the book, the core of which is now : lost. Some of at least twelve ofthe leaves were trimmed ofthe text beneath the miniatures while the lower painted border was salvaged and reused. In others ofthe twelve the text was saved with the lower border but the script ended up pasted behind one miniature J or another from the group, not always with its corresponding illustration. The sections i of lower border were reattached to one or another of the miniatures, whereupon they , were mounted in frames as independent paintings. i It bears emphasizing that the Harris and Amsterdam miniatures were still together at ^ this juncture, and they were all hung on a wall and exposed to sunlight. Natural light • seems to have caused the next physical change in the miniatures. The fading occurred \ mainly in areas painted with a red vegetable substance such as madder. Despite this, the \ rest of the colours are remarkably fresh and vibrant. Subsequently, the Amsterdam i cuttings passed to the hands ofan owner distinct from that ofthe Harris leaves, and lost their lower borders and what text remained.^^ They were already trimmed down to the '• thin gilt frame that contains the miniature when they were acquired by the 1 Rijksprentenkabinet a few decades ago.^^ As noted above, the portions of text surviving among the Harris cuttings (except the incipit for Tierce ofthe Hours ofthe Virgin) have i now been restored to their original positions. j The attribution of the eight Harris miniatures to Simon Marmion was first proposed | by Janet Backhouse in 1992.^^ Independently, fifteen years earlier K. G. Boon*attributed ; the Amsterdam miniatures to Marmion, allowing that they might be by the master and his studio."*^ Ainsworth, on the other hand, has proposed that the Crucifixion (fig. 12) and I the Adoration ofthe Magi (fig. 11) from the latter group are by Marmion, and the other | two by his studio (figs. 9, 13).^^ The artistic style identified with the name of Marmion was one ofthe most fashionable in French and Flemish manuscript illumination during the second half of the fifteenth ; century. Praised not long after his death by the poet Jean Lemaire de Beiges as the j 'prince d'enluminure', the documentary evidence shows that he was a famous artist in i his day."'^ The character of his artistic production, however, has been a topic of debate ; for more than a century.'^^ No single work is signed by him nor is any documented ; beyond a reasonable doubt. ^'^ Yet a wealth of circumstantial evidence argues strongly in i favour of attributing to Marmion and his workshop a number of masterworks both of manuscript illumination and of painting in oil: from the 1450s the Grandes Chroniques • de France of Philip the Good, (St Petersburg, National Library of ; Russia, MS. Erm. 88) and the St Bertin (Berlin, Gemaldegalerie, and London,

210 PLATE I

CXXlt x\pi(b Ntl

St John on Patmos, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f. Ar PLATE II

St Matthew writing, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f PLATE III

.1 Presentation in the Temple, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. Add. * 'JiiiJ, f. Fr PLATE IV

David in Prayer, attributed to Simon Marmion and workshop. BL, Add. MS. 71117, f- Jr ); from the 1470s the Berlaymont Hours (San Marino, Calif., the Huntington Library, HM ii73;figs. i4-i7)andthe Visions of Tondal m^de for , Duchess of Burgundy (Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. 30); and from the 1480s the book of hours known as La Flora (Naples, National Library, MS. I B 51) and the British Library's Huth Hours (Add. MS. 38126).'^ Since none of the works is signed or fully documented, and considerable stylistic variation has long been detected within the larger corpus of manuscripts assigned to Marmion, even these great works may reflect to some degree the participation of assistants. As noted above, about a dozen other books of hours are largely by his hand or that of his workshop. They appear to have • oft been produced for the most part in the last two decades of his career. Marmion was born circa 1420, into a family of artists in in northern France where he would have taken his training and where he began his career. By 1458 he had moved to Valenciennes near the modern Belgian border and worked there until his death in 1489, becoming both wealthy and prominent in the community. In his lifetime northern France was partially under the control of the dukes of Burgundy, and Marmion earned a significant share of his patronage from the peripatetic Burgundian court which governed from various towns in northern France and Flanders. Within French illumination Marmion's art is striking for its Flemish character, a quality derived as much from Flemish masters of such as as from the example of other book illuminators of the region. Marmion heightened the degree of verisimilitude in the art of manuscript illumination, introducing the descriptive richness and subtlety in depicting light and texture developed by the great Flemish painters. The fragmentary book of hours under consideration here not only exhibits this naturalism but also the occasional borrowing from one of these artists. St Luke painting the Virgin and Child (fig. 3) derives ultimately, in the full-length Virgin seated on a bench before a cloth-of-honour and St Luke, from Rogier van der Weyden's celebrated painting of the saint sketching the Virgin's portrait (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts).^^ Besides those books for the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, Marmion created lavish manuscripts for David of Burgundy, Archbishop of Utrecht; Guillaume Fillastre, Abbot of St Bertin and Bishop of Toul; a member of the noble Luxembourg family prominent at the Burgundian court; and other ducal family members and courtiers. Margaret of York was the most illustrious English person among these distinguished clients. As so often with books of hours, however, the first owner of the manuscript containing the Harris and Rijksmuseum leaves remains unknown. The compositions and of the miniatures, as well as many individual motifs, from costume to gesture, find countless parallels throughout the reconstructed CEUvre of Marmion. The closest ones appear in the Berlaymont Hours in the Huntington Library, which is generally dated around 1470-5.^^ Significantly, this manuscript contains subjects identical to all but one of the twelve miniatures under consideration. General similarities in physical types are apparent throughout the two books. For example, in the two miniatures of the Raising of Lazarus (figs. 6 and 14), the facial types of Christ, Lazarus, and various onlookers, and some of their costumes show resemblances.

211 Fig. i6. Presentation in the Temple^ attributed to Simon Marmion. Berlaymont Hours: The Huntington Library, HM 1173, f. 53r. By kind permission of The Huntington Library

The placement of the figures in relationship to the landscape is also comparable as is the type of landscape, which culminates in an urban view. In the versions of the Adoration of the Magi (figs. 11 and 15) the same number of figures is arranged nearly identically, with correspondences down to such details as the locations of Joseph's hands. In both miniatures Joseph grasps the manger's supporting column with his left hand while removing his hat with the right. The two Adorations differ primarily in the brushwork and handling of the setting.

212 ouuucmmmwa n fcam

Fig. I/. St Luke painting the Virgin and Child, attributed to Simon Marmion. Berlaymont Hours: The Huntington Library, HM 1173, f. 15V. By kind permission of The Huntington Library 213 In the splendid David in Prayer (Plate IV), typical of the Marmion style are the low rugged cliffs that frame the silhouette of David on the left while a tree-lined river leads the eye back. The view culminates in an imposing imaginary townscape of . The neat row of trees and the delicate colouring in blue, blue-greens, yellow-greens, grey-greens and greys are generally characteristic of landscapes by Marmion. This and the intimate landscape of Patmos in St John the Evangelist (Plate I) compare favourably in the handling of both depth and detail with the finest of the Berlaymont landscapes, notably those of the Flight into Egypt and David in Prayer. (The former is exceptionally well unified spatially.) The symmetrical arrangement of the Virgin, the priest Simeon, and onlookers around an altar placed on axis in the Presentation in the Temple (Plate III) is found in Marmion's earliest treatment of the subject (Turin, Museo Civico, MS. 558),^^ datable probably to the 1460S, but it resembles most the version in the Berlaymont Hours (fig. 16). There the architectural character of the chapel with its low vault springing from compound piers, surrounded by an ambulatory with leaded Gothic windows, compares closely to the British Library miniature. Only the proportions differ somewhat; in the Berlaymont Hours the vault rises higher above the figures. Also, strikingly similar in the Huntington and London/Amsterdam cycles are the narrow cells where the evangelists Luke, Matthew and Mark write their gospels. In the corresponding miniatures of St Luke painting the Virgin and Child (figs. 3 and 17), the disciple sits in relationship to both his easel and his holy sitters in much the same way.^'* Thus in figure types, landscape conventions and compositional motifs the newly discovered cycle is not only broadly characteristic of the Marmion style, but particularly evocative of the Berlaymont Hours. While the Berlaymont Hours shows the closest parallels to the London/Amsterdam cycle in individual compositions and motifs along with the character of the landscapes, there are differences between the two in manner of execution that merit a closer look. The former cycle displays an exceptional level of refinement in execution, while the newly discovered cycle shows a looser application of the brush, some differences in colour, and a distinct way of depicting light and shade. On the one hand, the illuminator of the London/Amsterdam miniatures uses colours representative of the Berlaymont Hours and of the Marmion style in general along with a focus, also characteristic of the artist, on lighter hues that are delicately modulated and balanced with one another. On the other hand, the red cape, blue tunic, and sleeves of the bagpiper in the Annunciation to the Shepherds are an unusual combination for Marmion (fig. 9). Moreover, salmon, a colour found throughout the Berlaymont Hours and a hallmark of his palette, is used sparingly and incidentally in the London/Amsterdam cycle. In addition, the way paint is applied differs from one cycle to the other. This is illustrated in the painting of faces, beards, and costumes, which are more detailed and fully modelled in the Berlaymont Hours where these features also appear more lively. In the faces of the evangelists in the London miniatures, the brushwork is more summary. Moreover, in certain details, such as the painting of the Christ child in the Adoration of the Magi (fig. 11), the handling of the brush is looser, but also weaker, especially in 214 comparison to the corresponding figure in the Huntington Magi (fig. 15)- versions of the Raising of Lazarus (figs. 6 and 14), so similar in composition, one detects departures in the choice of hue and in the broader, more summary brushwork. Also, the donkey from the Flight into Egypt is more convincingly drawn in the Berlaymont Hours,^^ in contrast to the elongated and loping animal in the London miniature (fig. 5). In the miniature of David in Prayer the windswept figures of the and God the Father in the heavens are brushed in with a loose, wispy touch that is rare in Marmion's work (Plate IV). A number of differences in execution are apparent in the two cycles' mostly comparable evangelist miniatures (Plates I, II; figs. 3, 4, 17). The cells are constructed of the same large grey bricks, and similar collapsible shutters fiank the windows. But the pattern of light and shadow in the room is achieved by different means. In the detached miniatures shadow is created through a gradation of value in a single hue while pools of white light create dramatic highlights. Especially beautiful in the British Library miniatures of St Luke and St Matthew (fig. 3; Plate II) are the patches of light that fall on the walls and the ceiling. In the Berlaymont Hours, by way of contrast, a system of fine grey hatches and dashes is used to indicate shadow while its absence defines highlights on the walls of the cell (fig. 17). Overall, the nuances of light and shade are subtler. Even allowing for the fading of reds in the London miniatures, there is a discernible difference in the handling of light. It is a difference as much of approach and technique as of aesthetic quality. How do we account for some of these differences when we know so little about the artist and how he worked? Two distinct interpretations come to mind. The most straightforward views the newly discovered cycle as a derivation or an adaptation from the miniatures of the Berlaymont Hours painted largely by a workshop collaborator of the master. It was thus probably painted shortly after the Huntington manuscript, which scholars generally date circa 1470-5. This view gains support from the consensus among scholars that variations in the manner of painting are widely apparent within the corpus of several dozen manuscripts grouped under the rubric 'Marmion'. Generally there is also agreement that he had an active workshop, although its character is poorly understood. Some scholars have gone so far as to identify half a dozen or more artists practising the style.^^ The use of assistants in the production of illuminated manuscripts on this scale appears to have been common in the fifteenth century, especially in books of hours.'^'^ As we have noted above, one of the unusual features of the miniatures under consideration here is that the landscapes sometimes seem to be more polished in execution than the figures. An alternative explanation is that the twelve miniatures are painted by Marmion and assistants at an earlier moment in his career. The miniatures of the Berlaymont Hours would thus represent both a development and a refinement of ideas seen in the London/Amsterdam cycle. There is also corroboration for this view. For example, Nicole Reynaud recently compared the new Crucifixion in stylistic terms to work by Marmion of the 1460s.^^^ And the cycle shows other characteristics that might point to 215 a dating in this decade. Gregory Clark has suggested that the artist's handling of architecture evolved steadily in the direction of greater openness and monumental scale.^' We have remarked that the vault of the chapel in the Presentation in the Temple in the Berlaymont Hours is taller than in the London miniature (fig. i6 and Plate III). In the St Luke miniature in the Berlaymont Hours (fig. 17) the cell's greater height is suggested by the absence of a ceiling altogether. Following Clark this would indicate that the London/Amsterdam cycle belongs to an earlier moment. In comparing the two cycles one notes in general that the Berlaymont Hours displays a greater spaciousness. This is particularly striking in the two versions of the Adoration of the Magi (figs. 11 and 15). In the Amsterdam miniature the stone portal crowds the figures into the foreground, a device reminiscent of the St Bertin altarpiece datable to the second half of the 1450s. In the Huntington Library's version of the Adoration, the manger is roomier and the setting becomes more spacious by the substitution of a rural setting for an urban one. In the British Library miniatures of ^/ Luke and St Matthew (fig. 3 and Plate II), the rooms are so full of figures and objects that the evangelists have little space to manoeuvre. The brocade in blue and gold, which are remarkably unmodulated for our artist, ultimately diminishes the sense of depth and heightens the sense of crowding in the room. The textile is remarkably similar in colour and type to the cloth-of-honour behind Philip the Good in the dedication frontispiece of the Grandes Chroniques de France of circa 1455.^^ In the Berlaymont Hours the writers' cells are no larger but seem more spacious and habitable (fig. 17). All of these features are consistent with a dating of the London/Amsterdam cycle to the 1460s, or a few years before the Berlaymont Hours. Though neither argument appears conclusive, the weight of evidence supports the second hypothesis better. Further, Reynaud has pointed out that the decorated initials in blue and red with white tracery and filled with ivy vines in the Amsterdam/London series belong to a type that is more common during the 1450s and 60s. During the following decade a different type of decorated letter, featuring prominent acanthus motifs, becomes the dominant style in Marmion manuscripts; in the Berlaymont Hours for example the fillers and backgrounds of the gilt letters are dense with curling acanthus (figs. 14-17). As the comparisons have shown, the proposed earlier dating also complements our understanding of the artist's development before 1470. On the other hand, whereas such masterworks of the early decades as the Grandes Chroniques de France and the Turin Hours show a level of refinement in brushwork and overall finish that are more reminiscent of the Berlaymont Hours than the new cycle, it is also true that a broader range of technique and finish is found among the books of hours illuminated in the Marmion style. The London/Amsterdam miniatures show Marmion working relatively quickly and with the participation of at least one assistant, as Boon and Ainsworth have suggested. Thus we propose a tentative dating for the series to the 1460s. If this hypothesis is correct, then the London/Amsterdam series belongs to one of Marmion's earliest books of hours and the first with miniatures in colour. During the golden era of Flemish art in the fifteenth century, painting and manuscript 216 illumination were generally practised separately-i.e., by artists who specialized in one medium or the other. Moreover, during the first half of the fifteenth century Flemish and northern French manuscript illumination was generally less sophisticated than .^^ The art of the northern French painter and illuminator Simon Marmion, who worked among and in collaboration with Flemish illuminators, altered the balance in this relationship, rekindling the aesthetic interdependence of painting in books and painting on panel during the second half of the century. The London/Amsterdam cycle of miniatures shows the revitalization of manuscript illumination in Flanders and northern France during the third quarter of the fifteenth century and exemplifies the heightened naturalism that ultimately would transform the character of Flemish illumination in the period 1475-85- As scholars have often noted in the past, the success of pictorial naturalism in Flemish illuminated manuscripts had unanticipated consequences. While the sequence of physical transformations of the book of hours containing the London/Amsterdam cuttings reveals dramatically the continuing appeal over the centuries of manuscript illumination of the Flemish Burgundian era, these alterations culminated in the codex's destruction and, as we have seen, some damage to the miniatures themselves. The miniatures came to be admired as independent paintings, the probable cause of the loss of the book itself. Nevertheless, they retain much of their original nuance and beauty while offering insights into the illuminator's technique. Add. MS. 71117 constitutes a valuable addition to the British Library's collection of late medieval Flemish manuscript illumination. One hopes that this study will lead to the discovery of other portions of the same book.

APPENDIX What follows is a hypothetical reconstruction of the pictorial cycle of the dismembered and incomplete book of hours from which derive London, British Library, Add. MS. 71117 and Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, nos. 61.100 and 70.44-46. It is based upon the available evidence; the original number of miniatures and texts could be larger still. (The Hours of the Holy Spirit and the Pentecost^ its traditional illustration, are included here because they appear generally in manuscripts that include the Hour of the Cross with its illustration. However, they are lacking in the Berlaymont Hours, which contains nonetheless an illustrated Hours of the Cross.) The sequence proposed is patterned after a typical book of hours made for a Flemish or French patron. Books made for English and some other patrons sometimes have a slightly different sequence of texts. BL refers to ownership by the British Library. AR refers to ownership by the Rijksprentenkabinet. [ ] refers to a miniature or text that is currently untraced.

217 MINIATURE CYCLE SIGNATURE TEXT Sometimes illustrated, [Calendar] sometimes not

St John on Patmos BL. Add. 71117, f. Ar Gospel extracts, St John, with i: 2-10 on f. Av; 2: 11-14 on f. Bv St Luke painting the Virgin and Child BL, Add. 71117, f. Br [St Luke] St Aiattherp mritiiig BL, Add. 71117, f. Cr St Matthew, with 2: 1-6 on f. Cv St jWark writing BL, Add. 71117, f. Dr St Mark, with 16: 14-18 on f. Dv [A tttiun nation] Hours of the Virgin [Matins] [I'isitation] [Lauds] [Nattvity] [Prime] Annunciation to the Shepherds AR, no 7O.44r Tierce, opening lines appear on BL, f Er, continuing on AR, no. 70.44 verso and BL, f. Ev; concluding antiphon and portion of concluding prayer on AR no. 70.45 recto Adoration of the Alagi AR, no. 70.45V [Sext] Presentation in the Temple Nones, continued on f. Fv; BL, Add. 71117, f. Fr concluding on f. Gv Flight into Egypt Vespers [Coronation of the Virgin] BL. Add. 71117, f. Gr [Compline] Crucifixion Hours of the Cross continued on no. AR, no. 7o.46r 70.46 verso [Pentecost] [Hours of the Holy Spirit] [ and Child] [Prayer or prayers to the Virgin] David in Prayer BL, Add. 71117, f. Jr Seven Penitential Psalms, with Psalm 6: 3-7 on f. Jv Generally not illustrated [Litany] [Last Judgement or Mass of the Dead] [Office of the Dead] [St Alary Magdalene] Suffrage of St Mary Magdalene, concluding lines on AR 61.100 recto. Martyrdom of St Apollonia AR, no. 61.100V [Suffrage of St Apollonia] Raising of Lazarus BL, Add. 71117, f. Hr Suffrages for All Deceased and the Souls of Family Members, continuing on f. Hv.

I would like to thank the J. Paul Getty Museum for refer to two separate fragments from the same a sabbatical leave in the winter of 1994 that enabled leaf.) The ninth cutting in the group (f. E), a me to conduct research on this essay. Janet text fragment, does not belong with any of the Backhouse, Scot McKendrick, Nicole Reynaud, miniatures in the British Library series but Elizabeth Teviotdale, and Christopher Wright pro- does belong to the same manuscript. The vided helpful suggestions towards the improvement relationship is elaborated below. of this paper. I thank them all. Janet Backhouse, ' Early Renaissance 1 Thomas Kren (ed.), catalogue and essays by Miniatures; Illuminations from the Collection of Janet Backhouse, Mark Evans, Thomas Kren, Miss Violeta Harris', National Art Collections and Myra Orth (New York City, 1983). Fund Review year ended 21 December igg2 (1993), 2 The Hastings Hours (London, 1983). pp. 18-22. Miss Harris purchased them in the 3 The dimensions of the cuttings as restored (see 1940s through her brother Tomas Harris below) are: ff. A: 16.4x13.2 cm; B: 11.6 x (1908-64) who ran the Spanish Art Gallery in 13.3 cm// 2x13.3 cm; C: ii.6x 13.6 cm// London. The leaves were first brought to my 2.9/1.7 X 13.4 cm; D: 11.8x13.5 cm/ attention by Miss Backhouse, who has gen- 2 X 13.3 cm; E: 6.5 x 13 cm; F: 16.8 x 13.7 cm; erously facilitated their examination and shared G: 16.2 X 12.9 cm; H: 16.7 x 13.1 cm; her ideas about them. J: 10.4x13.1 cm. (Two sets of dimensions Circa 1500 a workshop of book production in

218 Bruges specialized in painting another type of 13 Ainsworth, 'New Observations', p. 244. heavy architectural border, mixing Gothic and 14 I am grateful to Arie Wallert of the Getty some classical motifs. It often used similar Conservation Institute and Andrea Rothe and colonettes to those in Add. MS. 71117; while an Mark Leonard at the Getty Museum for sharing antecedent they were not necessarily a source for their views and experiences on the fading of the added borders under consideration here. On vegetable pigments. this subject see Thomas Kren, 'The Hours of 15 For examples of the effect of light on madder Joanna of Castile', in Renaissance Painting in glazes in Paintings, see David Manuscripts'. Treasures from the British Library, Saunders and Jo Kirby, 'Light-Induced Colour exh. cat. (Malibu, 1983), pp. 59-62; and Bodo Changes in Red and Yellow Lake Pigments', Brinkmann, Offizium der Madonna: Der Codex National Gallery Technical Bulletin, xv (1994), Vat. Lat. i02g3 und verwandte kleine pp. 79-97. Stundenbiicher mit Architekturbordiiren 16 The leaves were examined in the laboratory at (Stuttgart/Zurich, 1992). the British Library through the cooperation and 6 For example, a book of hours by this workshop assistance of Janet Backhouse, Scot in the British Library (Add. MS. 35318; figs. McKendrick, and Tony Parker. I am particularly 25a-b, 25c, and Renaissance Painting in Manu- grateful to Mr Parker for discussing the physical scripts, pis. XXXI-XXXII, pp. 187-91). condition and state of the manuscript with me. 7 Walter Cahn and James Marrow, 'Medieval and 17 Janet Backhouse has pointed out that Tomas Renaissance Manuscripts at Yale: A Selection', Harris may have been the last person to own all The Yale University Library Gazette., lii {1978), twelve leaves (and perhaps others from the same pp. 265-6 (under no. 81). I am grateful to Myra book), but his ownership of the Amsterdam Orth for discussing with me the use of the group remains to be demonstrated. cordeliere in sixteenth-century French manu- 18 The Martyrdom of Apolloma was acquired in scripts and for helpful bibliographic suggestions. 1961 and the other three in 1970, but all four 8 Anne-Marie Lecoq, Francois I symbolique (Paris, apparently derived from the same source, J. M. 1989), pp. 440-1, nn. 20-21. Redele, Dordrecht, and reportedly came from 9 For example, the architectural borders added to the Paris art market. the Marmion miniatures in the La Flora Hours, 19 Backhouse, 'Early Renaissance Miniatures', p. during the 1480s. See J. Courcelle-Ladmirant, 22. 'Le Breviaire flamand dit La Flora de la 20 K. G. Boon, Netherlandish Drawings of the Bibliotheque nationale de Naples', Bulletin de Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (, VInstitut Historique Beige de Rome., xx (1939), pp. 1978), text vol., pp. 3-4, nos. 4-7. 223-33, ai^d Kren in Renaissance Painting in 21 Ainsworth, 'New Observations', pp. 243-4. Manuscripts^ pp. 31—9. 22 The evidence is summarized in Thomas Kren, 10 They are especially common in the first half of 'Introduction', in Margaret of York, pp. 21-2. the fifteenth century in France, e.g., a book of 23 The literature by the various participants in the hours from the atelier of the Boucicaut Master in debate is cited in Kren, 'Introduction', pp. the Getty Museum, MS. 22. See 20-3, see especially the notes. The most recent 'Acquisitions/1986', TheJ. Paul Getty Museum opinions, largely in favour of identifying journal, xv (1987), pp. 171-3, ill. Marmion and his workshop with the artistic style n Turin, Museo Civico, MS. 558, and Madrid, analysed here, are expressed by various scholars Biblioteca Nacional, MS. Res. 149. On both in Margaret of York. They include de Schryver, these manuscripts see G. Clark, 'The Chron- pp. 171-80; Brinkman, pp. 181-94; Clark, pp. ology of the Louthe Master and the Identification 195-208; and Hindman, pp. 223-32. of Simon Marmion', \n Margaret of York, Simon 24 On the St Bertin altarpiece, which is connected Marmion, and the Visions of Tondal [hereafter to Marmion more through circumstantial evi- cited as Margaret of York] (Malibu, 1992), dence than through precise documentation, see pp. 195-6, 201, and esp. 206, nn. 5-6. C. Dehaisnes, Recherches sur le retable de Saint- 12 'New Observations on the Working Technique Bertin et sur Simon Marmion ( and in Simon Marmion's Panel Paintings', in Valenciennes, 1892), pp. 26ff., 37, and Kren, Margaret of York^ pp. 243-4. 'Introduction', Margaret of York, pp. 20-1.

219 More recently, Hindman has made a strong detail, an absence of reddish or rosy hues in the argument that two miniatures in the Marmion flesh tones. Even if it was originally applied in a style (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert madder or other vegetable pigment, then we Lehmann Coll., MS. 80, and formerly New York must ask why it alone received this technique. City, Robert Lehmann Coll.) belong to a 32 One unusual feature is the strengthening of breviary commissioned from Marmion in 1467 contours in black in the British Library minia- by Philip the Good and completed for his son ture. It is unclear whether or not this is original. Charles three years later: 'Two Leaves from an 33 James Thorpe, Book of Hours: Illuminations by Unknown Breviary: the Case for Simon Simon Marmion (San Marino, Ca., 1976), colour Marmion', in Margaret of York, pp. 223-32. If pi. 13. she is correct, then we may need to look again at 34 Edith W. Hoffmann, 'Simon Marmion or The Marmion's role in the emergence of various Master of the Altarpiece of Saint-Bertin: A conventions of Ghent-Bruges illumination. Problem in Attribution', Scriptorium, xxvii 25 The last two books were executed in collab- {1973X PP- 263-90. oration with several illuminators of the period, 35 A notable example is the Boucicaut Master. but both are primarily the work of Marmion or Most of the books of hours in his style seem not Marmion and his workshop. only to be by 'workshop' but also by 'followers' 26 On the chronology of the books of hours see and imitators. The great variety in the way they especially G. Clark, 'The Chronology of the are painted suggests the participation of nu- Louthe Master', pp. 195-208. merous hands so that defining workshop par- 27 Cf Martin Davies, Rogier van der Weyden ticipation or the work of an assistant becomes (London, 1972), fig. 76 and pp. 204-5. Copies of very difficult. For a list of some of these this painting are found in the Hermitage, St manuscripts see Millard Meiss and Edith Kirsch, Petersburg, and the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. French Painting in the Time of John, Duke of 28 Kren, Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts, p. 31, Berry \ The Boucicaut Master (London, 1968), and Clark, 'The Chronology of the Louthe PP- 75-138- Master', p. 201. Ainsworth has noted the close 36 As a compositional type and in details of the relationship of the Crucifixion and Adoration of landscape it recalls a Crucifixion from the Hours the Magi (Rijksmuseum) to the corresponding of Philip the Good, illuminated before 1467 subjects in the Huntington Hours. (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, MS. n. a. fr. 29 'The Chronology of the Louthe Master', p. 201, 16428, f 84r). Reynaud dates the MS. c. 1462-5. fig. 169. Cf. F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les Manuscrits a 30 The eccentric type of St Luke painting a half- peintures en France, 1440-1520, exh. cat. (Paris: length figure while the Virgin sits behind a Bibliotheque nationale, 1993), no. 39, ill p. 88. window derives from a type known in northern Boon's suggestion that the leaves are related to French manuscript illumination where she the four miniatures attributed to Marmion and appears behind a kind of balustrade, thus his workshop in MS. 78 B 13 (Berlin, revealing only the upper half of her body (cf Kupferstichkabinett) seems to this author no- Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, W.281, f i7r). tably less compelling than the comparisons Thus the pictorial lineage of the Berlaymont St presented above or that proposed by Reynaud Luke is largely distinct from that of the London {Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and miniature. Sixteenth Centuries (The Hague, 1978), p. 4). 31 Ainsworth maintains that the figures of the 37 'The Chronology of the Louthe Master', pp. Virgin, the Christ child, Joseph, and the kneeling 195-200. king were unfinished ('New Observations', p. 38 St Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS. 244). Certainly the unfinished character of the Erm. 88, f ir. Cf Les Manuscrits a Peintures en draperies, as noted above, results largely from France, 1440-1520, p. 81. fading, while correspondences for the painting of 39 The notable exception to this trend lies in the hair, e.g. in the case of the Virgin, can be found remarkable group of illuminations attributed to elsewhere in the cycle (cf the Presentation in the and his workshop in the Temple, Plate III). To my eye the painting of the Turin/Milan Hours. Adoration departs from the others in only one

220