The Rape and Suicide of Lucretia, a miniature, from the Romuléon, illuminated manuscript on vellum. [Eastern France, c. 1480]

FROM A LAVISH MANUSCRIPT HISTORY OF ROME

137 x 98mm. The large column-wide miniature opens Book 1. Ch. XXVIII, with the rubric 'Le xxviiie chap[itr]e Titus Livius', and depicting the rape and suicide of Lucretia, with Sextus Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, threatening a naked Lucretia sitting virtuously in a bed, and the same Lucretia stabbing herself in the foreground; on verso 22 lines of text in French (a little rubbed at extremities but generally fine). 

A fine secular miniature of the important story of Lucretia, once illustrating what would have been an imposing copy of the Romuléon, already separated by 1884 (see below). The work draws on several classical and Christian authors and tells the story of Rome and the Romans from the time of Romulus and Remus to Constantine the Great. A pivotal episode in early Roman history, noblewoman Lucretia’s rape by Etruscan king Sextus Tarquinius and her subsequent suicide sparked rebellion against her attacker; it proved the downfall of the Roman monarchy and the foundation upon which the Roman Republic was built. In this scene we see (from left) Tarquin, in contemporary dress, menacingly approaching Lucretia in her bedchamber with sword in hand; her suicide; and crowds gathering in the background over her body, foreshadowing uprising.

 

 

The original compilation, in Latin, was made by Benvenuto da Imola between 1361 and 1364, but in the 1460s, in response to the courtly taste for histories and chronicles in the vernacular, two writers independently undertook to translate the work into French (McKendrick, 1994). The present miniature illustrated a chapter of the translation of Jean Miélot, resident of Lille between 1453 and 1472, who was in the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, from around 1448 until the duke's death in 1467. Only six complete manuscripts of Miélot's translation survive, all of them luxury volumes made in the southern Netherlands for members or friends of the Burgundian court.   

 

A group of fourteen miniatures from the same manuscript, sold at Christie's, 21 June 1989, lots 6-11. They were attributed to an illuminator active in Langres between 1480 and 1493 serving clients in Champagne and Lorraine (Reynaud, 1993). The artist was subsequently named as one Langres illuminator Pierre Garnier, who worked at the court of René d'Anjou between 1476-1480 (Lauga, 2007).  

 

Provenance:  The fragmentary parent manuscript to which these and other dispersed miniatures once belonged has been identified in Niort (Bibliothèque Municipale, ms. Réserve G2F, formerly ms.25), given in 1884 by Edmond-Emmanuel Arnauldet. It is the only known copy of the Romuléon that was produced in France. The manuscript's frontispiece is in the Musée de Cluny in Paris acquired by 1883; other pieces are in the Musée de Limoges (McKendrick, 2012).  

 

S. McKendrick, 'The Romuléon and the MSS of Edward IV', Proceedings of the 1992 Harlaxton Symposium, 1994, pp.149-69.  S. McKendrick, 'Charles the Bold and the Romuléon: Reception, Loss and Influence’, in Kunst und Kultur-Transfer zür Zeit Karls des Kühnen, eds N. Gramaccini & M. C. Schurr, 2012, pp.59-84).  N. Reynaud in Les Manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1993, p. 376. J. Lauga 'Les Manuscrits liturgiques dans le diocèse de Langres à la fin du Moyen âge: les commanditaires et leurs artistes', thesis, Paris 4, Sorbonne, 2007).

Stock Code: 247465