Fol.
8r
Codicology
8th leaf in the portfolio; 1st leaf in quire 2; first folio of bifolio
8-14; 15th surface in the portfolio.
Size
237 mm. (9.33 in.) x 155 mm. (6.10 in.)
Paginations
C-13 = r; Mancel = H, then r; C-18 = 8.
Concordance
Lassus and Willis = XIV; Omont and Bouvet = XV; Hahnloser and Erlande-Brandenburg
et alia = 15; Bucher = V15; Chanfón = 8r; Bowie = 10.
Condition
This is an irregularly shaped leaf with a triangular piece missing from
the lower right corner. There are ink (?) spots along the outer (right)
edge and staining in the lettering. Mancel’s pagination letter H
is badly blotted. According to Hahnloser, an earlier architectural drawing
was erased to make room for this Crucifixion group. The leaf is flexible
with a velvet-like surface and has been scraped, but the only possible
architectural lines visible are three horizontal lines that come in from
the gutter ±25 mm. (±0.98 in.) from the top of the leaf.
In the gutter there are remains of a drawing of drapery (or feathers?)
in the lower half of the leaf. These traces extend across the gutter onto
fol. 14v. Being 5 mm. (.19 in.) longer than leaf 7, the lower edge of
this leaf is exposed and very soiled. This is the flesh side of the parchment.
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Drawing 1
Subject
Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist
Size
226 mm. (8.94 in.) x 93 mm. (3.66 in.)
Technique
This drawing is beautifully executed in dark brown ink. There are traces of
graphite preliminary drawing in the figures of the Virgin and St. John, but
none in the figure of Christ. Some of the Muldenfaltenstil drapery
folds are lightly shaded. The facial features were sketched in by Villard but
not completed
.
Attribution
Villard
Inscription
Transcription (NB: The following
Greek text is correct in the book but did not transfer accurately in this electronic
transfer.)
XIHC XXP C [= XIhsouV XCristoV]
XAGLAX [= XAgiaX (mhthr?)]
IOTh 1533 E [= IoannhV 1533 QeologoV]
hel [= HlioV]
Translation
JESUS CHRIST
HOLY [MOTHER?] (= Virgin Mary)
JOHN THE THEOLOGIAN (= Evangelist)
SUN
Attribution
Unknown; the inscription is ascribed by all commentators to Villard but certainly
is not by him. It is a later insertion made in 1533, which date appears between
theta and the eta in IOThE. Whoever attempted to copy the original wording was
unfamiliar with Greek and mixed Greek and Gothic letters, for example, L and
G are not Greek letters. The lettering is by the same hand that wrote the large
word LEO on fols. 24r and 24v, identifiable by the form of the L (Fig. 16).
Helios must originally have identified an image of the sun. A corresponding
identification for the moon to the left of the cross either was missing from
the model (see below) or overlooked by the copyist.
Commentary
This drawing should be compared to the more detailed Crucifixion on fol. 2v.
The pose of Christ is virtually identical including the awkward arrangement
of the feet. The Virgin and St. John display poses of grief or mourning. Each
of the four Gospels recounts the Crucifixion of Christ but only John (19:26)
specifies that his mother and “the disciple he loved,” traditionally
believe to be John, were near the foot of the cross.
The robes of the Virgin and St. John and the loincloth of Christ exhibit Muldenfaltenstil.
The knot of the lion cloth here is on Christ’s right hip whereas in the
image on fol. 2v it is centered below the navel. The way the heavy drapery stacks
up over the feet of the Virgin is seen in the female figures on fols. 4v and
12r. The poses of the Virgin and St. John, save for the position of the Virgin’s
left arm, mirror one another.
The ensemble is an arrangement called a Calvary, popular in the later Middle
Ages and still found along roadsides in Brittany and elsewhere in France. These
normally are of wood, but there is an occasional stone example such as the grouping
at Pleybven in Brittany. It has the figures of the Virgin and St. John standing
on extended fronds, but it dates 1632-1640 and has braces under the fronds supporting
the two figures.
Villard’s construction looks architectural—the cross itself emerges
from a curved foliate projection to each side, the left (as seen by the viewer)
supporting the Virgin, the right supporting St. John; the foliate design rises
from atop a column just above an annulus; and the column itself rises from a
base atop a three-step plinth—but the model most likely was a small bronze,
from which a figure of the Virgin now in the Cleveland Museum of Art may have
come (Pl. 16). Bucher illustrates the bronze Crucifixion of Master Reraldus
now in San Marco, Venice which is more complex, being a cross of Lorraine with
figures standing on the arms of the lower crosspiece, but which does show the
Virgin and St. John standing on curved fronds.
Drawing 2
Subject
Frame with Fleur-de-Lys
Size
32 mm. (1.26 in.) x 39 mm. (1.54 in.)
Technique
The frame was sketched quickly with a fine-nib, almost dry quill. There is no
preliminary drawing. The two rings were added later by someone using a broad
nib quill and bright sepia ink, possibly the same childish hand that added details
to the snail on fol. 2r and the skull on fol. 2v. It may be that the person
began the frame with the intention of copying the Crucifixion in it but realized
that the basically square format would not work.
Attribution
Unknown graffitist.
Commentary
This crude drawing is of no interest for the scene above.
Drawing 3
Subject
Icon with Crucifixion
Size
43 mm. (1.69 in.) x 31 mm. (1.22 in.)
Technique
The frame and figures were drawn with a very fine-nib quill pen without preliminary
drawings. The ink is darker than that in the left drawing or in the Crucifixion
drawing above but not as dark as it reproduces in black and white photographs.
The ring was added later by someone using a broad-nib quill and bright sepia
ink, possibly the same childish hand that added details to the snail on fol.
2r and the skull on fol. 2v.
Attribution
Unknown graffitist.
Commentary
This drawing is of singular importance to the inscription above. It appears
to be a copy of a 14th-century Byzantine icon of the Crucifixion with the Virgin
and St. John and the Sun (left of the cross, to Christ’s right) and the
Moon (right of the cross, to Christ’s left). It no doubt was from this
icon that the individual attempted to copy the inscribed names around Villard’s
cross.