Some Newly Discovered Miniatures by Simon Marmion and His Workshop
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SOME NEWLY DISCOVERED MINIATURES BY SIMON MARMION AND HIS WORKSHOP THOMAS KREN THE late D. H. Turner, Deputy Keeper in the British Library's Department of Manuscripts, besides having a deep interest in hturgical manuscripts, was also the inspiration for Renaissance 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 book of hours, 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 Michael.^ 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 <?. Gospel extract from St John (i: 11-14). BL, Add. MS. 71117, f Bv 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.