An illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours depicting the Crucifixion by the Master of Guillebert de Mets, on vellum, in Latin, (Southern Netherlands, probably Ghent), c. 1440–50

An illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours depicting the Crucifixion by the Master of Guillebert de Mets

on vellum, in Latin, (Southern Netherlands, probably Ghent) c.1440, 17 × 95 mm; a beautiful miniature contained within a gently arched frame, surrounded by luxurious and substantial gold border, infilled with curling and unfurling vegetal and floral elements, with the vegetal elements creating colourful swirls at each corner of the frame; the miniature is surrounded on three sides by further decorative vines with trefoil leaves and floral elements; at the centre of the miniature is the emaciated body of Christ on the cross, flanked in the background by the crucified figures of Gestas and Dismas under a dark blue, foreboding-looking sky; in front of the cross to the left is the mourning Virgin Mary, clothed in dark blue, supported in her grief by the Apostle St John, while on the right of the composition a group of soldiers taunt and torment the crucified Dismas; excellent condition.

PROVENANCE

From an illuminated Book of Hours made by the Master of Guillebert de Mets and his workshop, c.1440.

A LUXURIOUS AND EXUBERANT WORK BY THE RENOWNED BUT ELUSIVE MASTER OF GUILLEBERT DE METS

COMMENTARY

The luxurious miniature at hand is executed most likely by the Masters of Guillebert de Mets. Guillebert himself was an adept scribe and a native of Grammont. Working in the service of Philip the Good, he wrote the earliest vernacular chronicle of medieval Paris, called Description de Paris. While in Paris, the young Guillebert rubbed shoulders with some of France’s intellectual elite, including one of the most influential female authors, Christine de Pizan.

However, after the murder of his main patron, John the Fearless, in 1419, Guillebert was forced to return to Grammont, where he started to build his own book business. While he executed the calligraphic elements of manuscript production, he assembled a group of accomplished illuminators who were soon in demand at the ducal court of Burgundy and created works for leading bibliophiles of the time. Sixty-four manuscripts and fragments have survived from this prolific workshop and were assembled by Vanwijnsberghe and Verroken in 2017. Their research highlighted the close relationship and artistic exchange between Paris, as a centre of the French book trade, and the Low Countries and the Burgundian court. This exchange and bilateral influence are tangible in the elegant products of the workshop of the Master of Guillebert de Mets, who in his capacity as a scribe had worked for both French and Flemish patrons.

ILLUMINATION

Using a beautiful and precious palette of blues and greens with orange and red accents, the artist creates long figures with alabaster complexions that are highlighted by the strong colours used for their floor-length garments. Besides the liberal use of gold, silver is generously applied, making the leaf even more precious and costly in its creation. While the Book of Hours in which our leaf originated has not yet been identified, the Crucifixion usually introduced the opening of the Hours of the Cross.

The sombre nature of the dramatic scenes is contrasted by a few small but poignant details that enliven the borders, such as a devil and angel near the head of the border who are grasping the souls of Gestas and Dismas, the impenitent and the good thief. While Dismas’s soul, in the form of a child-like human figure, looks towards the angel who carries it away to heaven, the soul of Gestas turns with a shocked expression towards the viewer, away from the smirking face of the devil. In the right-side margin, a shield of one of Jesus’s tormentors, which is decorated with a frowning human countenance, overlaps into the border of the initial, bridging the space between the illuminated scene and its surrounding decoration.

The three figures of Christ’s tormentors are gaudily and exuberantly dressed; their faces stylised into grotesque masks. Especially the little face peering out between the cross and the frame has more animalistic features than human. The figure of the almost lifeless Mary and John the Baptist, who supports her, is gracefully modelled and presents a strong and composed contrast to the raucous group of tormentors on the right.

While the two bodies of the thieves are twisting and turning in agony, the emaciated form of Christ’s body is displayed almost gracefully and still on the cross, only moments before his death.

The leaf offers stylistic parallels to a Book of Hours (Getty Museum, Ms. 2 (84.ML.67)) illuminated by the Master of Guillebert de Mets, the Master of the Lee Hours (Flemish, active about 1450–1470), and the Master of Wauquelin’s Alexander (Flemish, active about 1440–1460). This manuscript is dated between 1450–1455. Our leaf also exhibits stylistic similarities to two earlier single leaves held at the Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E. M. 5.20 and 5.19) which are dated c.1440, as well as to two Books of Hours richly illuminated by our artist, one in Bologna (Bibl. U. MS 1139) and one in the Vatican, Bib. Apost., MS Ottoboo. Lat. 2919). Based on the modelling of the human faces and figures, the leaf might be an earlier iteration of the artist’s work.

LITERATURE

“The Master of Guillebert de Mets: An Illuminator between Paris and Ghent?”

In Als ich can: Liber amicorum in memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, edited by Bert Cardon, Jan Van der Stock, and Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, 921–939. Leuven: Peeters, 2002.

“The Master of Guillebert de Mets, Philip the Good, and the Breviary of John the Fearless.” Quaerendo 38, no. 2–3 (2008): 279–298.

Vanwijnsberghe, Dominique, and Erik Verroken. À l’Escu de France: Guillebert de Mets et la peinture de livres à Gand à l’époque de Jan van Eyck (1410–1450). Brussels: KIK-IRPA, 2017.

Croenen, Godfried. “Guillebert de Mets: A Bilingual Scribe, Author and Publisher between Flanders and Paris (c. 1390–c. 1438).” In Medieval French on the Move, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2025, 287–306.

Somers, Sophie. “The Varied Occupations of a Burgundian Scribe: Guillebert de Mets.”

In Als Ich Can, 2002, 1227–1246.