Illuminated Manuscript—The Defeat of Antiochus, King of Syria at the Battle of Magnesia, miniature from the Romuléon [Eastern France, c.1480]

A dramatic scene from the romuléon, the only manuscript copy of the text of french origin, illuminated by the artist pierre gautier

PROVENANCE:

1. The Romuléon manuscript from which this and other dispersed miniatures originated was traced in Niort (now at the Médiathèque Pierre-Moinot, Cote RES G2F). The manuscript was given to the library in 1884 by Edmond-Emmanuel Arnauldet (1827–1899), , a local judge.

2. The present cutting was part of lot 9 from an album of 14 miniatures dispersed at Christie's, 21 June 1989, lots 6-11.

3. Christie's, New York, 12 December 2017, lot 31.

4. Purchased from Maggs Brothers, London, 2019/20;

COMMENTARY:

The dramatic scene depicted in the miniature shows the defeat of the Seleucid emperor Antiochus at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC by the forces of the Roman Republic and their allies, the Kingdom of Pergamon. His defeat resulted in a substantial loss of land of the Seleucid empire and Antiochus died only three years later on a subsequent expedition.

The battle wages in front of a beautiful landscape of soft hills. Separated by a meandering river is an imposing Gothic castle with a prominent rectangular donjon reminiscent of the Château de Vincennes that was used by the French kings. Like a black tide, the knights are enmeshed in battle on horse back and the bodies of the fallen begin to pile up under their horses hoves.

The miniature was part of the Romuléon, a monumental work that covered the history of Ancient Rome from the time of Romulus and Remus to Constantine the Great. Its original compiler, Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola (1330 –1388), drew on a variety of classical and Christian sources to create his influential compilation. In the course of the 1460s histories as well as chronicles were in high demand among the noble and learned elite, which resulted in not only one, but two writers translating the work from Latin into French — independently of each other (cf. McKendrick, pp.149-69). This translation shows the immense increase in popularity of the work, making it more easily accessible to the wider audiences at court and beyond.

Our miniature stems from a manuscript translated by Jean Miélot, who worked as a translator and scribe in the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, one of the time’s leading patrons of the arts who commissioned the work. Only six complete manuscript copies of Miélot’s translation are extant and all of them originate in the orbit of the Burgundian court and were sophisticated luxury editions.

Thirteen other leaves, most likely from the same manuscript are known, and were sold together with the present miniature at Christie's, 21 June 1989, lots 6-11. The leaves were attributed to the artist Pierre Garnier, a court painter of Duke René of Anjou between 1476-1480 (Lauga, 2007) and active in Langres until 1493 (Reynaud p.376).

This miniature stems from the only known copy of the Romuléon that can claim a French origin. The dramatic scene is an expression of the changing literary taste and thirst for histories by the Burgundian elite in the second half of the 15^th century.

LITERATURE:

Avril, François, and Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1993.

Lauga, Jacques. “Les manuscrits liturgiques dans le diocèse de Langres à la fin du Moyen Âge: les commanditaires et leurs artistes.” PhD diss., Université Paris IV–Sorbonne, 2007.

McKendrick, Scot. “The Romuléon and the Manuscripts of Edward IV.” In Proceedings of the 1992 Harlaxton Symposium, 149–169. Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1994.

McKendrick, Scot. “Charles the Bold and the Romuléon: Reception, Loss and Influence.” In Kunst- und Kulturtransfer zur Zeit Karls des Kühnen, edited by Norberto Gramaccini and Markus C. Schurr, 59–84. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012.