SPANISH FORGER. Female saint with a crusader and a layman. Large historiated initial Q on an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT LEAF ON VELLUM. [France, 1st quarter 20th century] 192 x 214mm. A female saint, holding a reliquary, accompanied by a layman, standing before a castle, being blessed by a crusader in armour holding a banner, his helmet and gauntlets on the ground beside him; in the background, a river with a ship and a mountainous landscape with a fortified city; the whole within an initial Q of blue with white tracery and with coloured foliate extensions on a gold ground. (Slight scaling of pigment, normal craquelure; not examined out of frame.) Framed and glazed. The Spanish Forger, named by Bella da Costa Greene of the Pierpont Morgan Library, appears to have worked in Paris from about 1900 until the 1920s. By 1987 some 154 leaves had been attributed to him, in addition to 7 manuscripts and 65 panel paintings (William Voelkle, The Spanish Forger , Milwaukee, 1987). The present miniature is typical of the Forger's work. The motif of a female saint holding a reliquary appears in a large initial D very similar in size and style to this one (William Voelkle, The Spanish Forger , New York, 1978, fig. 247 [L31]), and a departing crusader with a castle and a ship in the background occurs in a panel painting (Voelkle 1978, fig. 47 [P8]). The setting of the present miniature, with its arrangement of castle, ship, and distant town, is closely paralleled in the panel painting customarily identified as "The Betrothal of St. Ursula" (Voelkle 1978, fig. 1 [P26]). It was the exposure of this panel by Miss Greene in 1929 that laid the foundation for the identification of additional works by the Forger. The Spanish Forger drew his models from 19th-century French publications, in particular sets of chromolithographed reproductions of medieval art. The dates of his supposed activity are suggested by the provenance of the works attributed to him, none of which can be confirmed before the early 20th century, and some of which are as late as the 1920s. The Forger's single leaves and large initials, undoubtedly intended to satisfy the early 20th-century market for cuttings from medieval codices, were produced in sets of similar size and motifs that could be sold individually or together. The present leaf, not in Voelkle 1978 or Voelkle 1987, is closely related to those reproduced in Voelkle 1978, figs 239-45 and 247.
SPANISH FORGER. Female saint with a crusader and a layman. Large historiated initial Q on an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT LEAF ON VELLUM. [France, 1st quarter 20th century] 192 x 214mm. A female saint, holding a reliquary, accompanied by a layman, standing before a castle, being blessed by a crusader in armour holding a banner, his helmet and gauntlets on the ground beside him; in the background, a river with a ship and a mountainous landscape with a fortified city; the whole within an initial Q of blue with white tracery and with coloured foliate extensions on a gold ground. (Slight scaling of pigment, normal craquelure; not examined out of frame.) Framed and glazed. The Spanish Forger, named by Bella da Costa Greene of the Pierpont Morgan Library, appears to have worked in Paris from about 1900 until the 1920s. By 1987 some 154 leaves had been attributed to him, in addition to 7 manuscripts and 65 panel paintings (William Voelkle, The Spanish Forger , Milwaukee, 1987). The present miniature is typical of the Forger's work. The motif of a female saint holding a reliquary appears in a large initial D very similar in size and style to this one (William Voelkle, The Spanish Forger , New York, 1978, fig. 247 [L31]), and a departing crusader with a castle and a ship in the background occurs in a panel painting (Voelkle 1978, fig. 47 [P8]). The setting of the present miniature, with its arrangement of castle, ship, and distant town, is closely paralleled in the panel painting customarily identified as "The Betrothal of St. Ursula" (Voelkle 1978, fig. 1 [P26]). It was the exposure of this panel by Miss Greene in 1929 that laid the foundation for the identification of additional works by the Forger. The Spanish Forger drew his models from 19th-century French publications, in particular sets of chromolithographed reproductions of medieval art. The dates of his supposed activity are suggested by the provenance of the works attributed to him, none of which can be confirmed before the early 20th century, and some of which are as late as the 1920s. The Forger's single leaves and large initials, undoubtedly intended to satisfy the early 20th-century market for cuttings from medieval codices, were produced in sets of similar size and motifs that could be sold individually or together. The present leaf, not in Voelkle 1978 or Voelkle 1987, is closely related to those reproduced in Voelkle 1978, figs 239-45 and 247.
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.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
