Description: NMB 2353-2354
Two cuttings from an antiphonary illuminated by Jean Colombe. 
[Bourges, c.1475-1493]

Catalogue raisonné: NMB 2353-2354
Two cuttings from an antiphonary illuminated by Jean Colombe. 
[Bourges, c.1475-1493] 

Physical Description
MATERIAL: Gouache and shell gold on parchment.
DIMENSIONS: (NMB 2353) 170 x 150 mm. (NMB 2354) 160 x 155mm
NUMBER OF LEAVES: 1.
FOLIATION: Unknown
RULING: 4 visible lines of text and musical notation.
LANGUAGE: Latin.
SCRIPT: Gothic textura.
RUBRICATION: No rubrics.

Text
NMB 2353: Difficult to read due to deterioration of the text.
NMB 2354: Text part of Dum per ambularet dominus juxta mare secus littus Galilaeae, alleluia. It would continue vidit Petrum et Andream retia mittentes in mare vocavit eos dicens venite post me faciam vos piscatores hominum. This is part of the feast of St Andrew.

Sister leaves
Unknown 

Decoration
NMB 2353: Jesus stands by the Sea of Galilee. He has ginger hair and beard and wears a long green robe. He holds out his hand in greeting to the fishermen on the boat approaching him. On the boat are the apostles Andrew and Peter. As Peter was considered the older brother of Andrew and the foremost apostle, it is probably he who is standing foremost in the boat. Peter wears a light brown tunic and has grey hair and a beard. Andrew, who is lifting up a fishing net, wears a blue tunic and has brown hair and a beard. The landscape in the image is painted in a naturalistic way, with trees, rocks and reflections in the water. In the distance another boat can be seen and the sky is painted in an almost impressionistic manner. 
NMB 2354: In this miniature, St Andrew is tied to his distinctive X shaped as he is being martyred at the city of Patras in Greece, in AD 60. Andrew is wearing a brown tunic and has grey hair and a beard. According to tradition a light descended from Heaven and enveloped him for half an hour, when the light returned, Andrew died. This light can be seen around Andrew’s head. Under Andrew’s cross are a large number of riders on horseback wearing elaborate clothes of the late 15th century. In the background, next to a large body of water is a beautiful Gothic city where can be seen a cathedral, a castle, and the numerous towers of the city wall. Just as in NMB 2353, the sky has been painted in an almost impressionistic manner.

Provenance
Parent volume
1. Written in Northern France, maybe in Tours or Flanders, in the last quarter of the 15th C.

Present leaf
1. The Belgian owner of the Mérode alter piece (ca 1900).
2. Jacques Kugel, Paris. 
3. Purchased from Kugel by Carl Nordenfalk in 1980. 
4. Donated by Nordenfalk to the Nationalmuseum in 1992.

Exhibited
1. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Gyllene böcker. Nyförvärv och nyupptäckter, December 1987-March 1988 (not treated in catalogue).

Commentary
The artist was Jean Colombe (fl. 1463-1493), an illuminator active in Bourges. He was one of the most prolific French manuscript illuminators of the latter part of the 15th century. The antiphonary cuttings come from the Feast of St Andrew. NMB 2353 shows St Andrew and St Peter fishing on the Sea of Galilee as Christ approaches them. NMB 2354 shows St Andrew being crucified on the X shaped cross. St Andrew could have been the patron saint of the institution that owned this antiphonary.

Bibliography
Sandgren, Eva Lindqvist, Illuminated Manuscripts in Swedish Collections, https://www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/resultList.jsf?dswid=7830&p=1&searchType=EXTENDED&sortString=creationYear_sort_asc&noOfRows=10&af=%5B%22ARCHIVE_ORG_ID_facet%3A67%22%5D&query=&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22HOST%22%3A%22alvin-record%3A471052%22%7D%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D
Seidel, Christine, ‘Tradition and Innovation in the Work of Jean Colombe: The Usage of Models in Late 15th Century French Manuscript Illumination’ in The Use of Models in Medieval Book Painting, ed. by Monika Müller (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), pp. 137-166.

Research project 2022-2023, Illuminated Manuscript, Christian Etheridge, Art Historian

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