{"title":"Illustrated Books","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"a-polish-illuminated-choirbook-leaf-by-blazej-derey-poznan-1632","title":"A Polish Illuminated Choirbook Leaf by Błażej Derey, Poznań, 1632","description":"\u003cp\u003eDerey, Błażej OP (c.1587–1666).\u003cbr\u003eIlluminated \u003cem\u003eKyriale\u003c\/em\u003e, single leaf on vellum.\u003cbr\u003ePoznań, Dominican convent, 1632.\u003cbr\u003eLarge folio.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA monumental survival from an extraordinary Polish Dominican \u003cem\u003eKyriale \u003c\/em\u003eof 1632, here attributed to Błażej Derey, probably the most distinctive manuscript artist of seventeenth-century Poland. The parent manuscript has previously been recognised as a \u003cem\u003eKyriale \u003c\/em\u003emade for the Dominican convent at Poznań in 1632 (cf. Bloomsbury Auctions, London, 6 July 2022, lot 59), but the now-dispersed manuscript has apparently never previously been recognised as a work of Derey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe attribution proposed here rests upon a close conjunction of date, Dominican provenance and, above all, decorative vocabulary and has been independently supported by an expert.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDerey’s surviving manuscripts have received considerable scholarly attention. Zbigniew Mikołejko characterises his work by its subdued or “broken” palette, particularly yellows; gilded and silvered grounds; a repertoire of zoomorphic ornament which specifically includes dolphins; and, most characteristically, elaborate one-, two-, three- and four-strand interlace. All are strongly represented in the present leaf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParticularly close comparison may be made with Derey’s Dominican liturgical manuscripts preserved in Kraków, where closely related knotwork, colouring, ornamental lettering and zoomorphic forms recur.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe chronology is equally compelling. Derey was producing major Dominican choirbooks during precisely this period: the surviving corpus includes the \u003cem\u003eSupplementum\u003c\/em\u003e of 1630 (MS 12 L), \u003cem\u003eGraduale de tempore\u003c\/em\u003e of 1632 (MS 9 L), \u003cem\u003eGraduale de sanctis\u003c\/em\u003e of 1633 (MS 11 L), and \u003cem\u003eGraduale de tempore\u003c\/em\u003e of 1635 (MS 10 L). Those manuscripts are themselves substantial folios, generally approximately 26–28 × 38–40 cm. At 41 × 60 cm, however, the present Poznań Kyriale was conceived on an altogether more monumental scale and would appear to be the largest manuscript presently attributable to Derey by a considerable margin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts historical setting is equally exceptional. The \u003cem\u003eKyriale \u003c\/em\u003ewas produced for the Poznań Dominicans apparently under the direction of their prior, Jacek (Hyacinth) Choryński, whose name reportedly appeared on its original frontispiece together with that of the Polish Dominican Provincial, Jerzy Trebnic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe year 1632 marked the culmination of an important programme of artistic and devotional patronage at the Poznań convent. Under Choryński the house commissioned Tomasso Dolabella’s monumental Battle of Lepanto, now at Wawel Castle, for the Rosary Chapel. Its principal financial patron was Stanisław Przyjemski, Grand Marshal of the Crown. Aleksander Stankiewicz has argued that, while Przyjemski probably supplied the money, the learned Choryński may himself have devised the painting’s intellectual and iconographic programme; he even proposes that the Dominican friar depicted holding a book and candle may represent Choryński.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe appearance of Choryński’s name on the \u003cem\u003eKyriale’s \u003c\/em\u003efrontispiece therefore has particular significance. Created for the same convent, in the same year, and on a similarly exceptional scale, the manuscript may plausibly have formed part of the wider programme of liturgical and artistic renewal over which he presided. It is even possible that Przyjemski, whose patronage financed the Dolabella commission, contributed towards the costly production of the Gradual, although no documentary evidence for his involvement has yet been identified.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeveral leaves from the parent codex are known. Its surviving frontispiece reportedly carried a lengthy Latin inscription dating the manuscript, identifying its chant as following the Dominican edition of Seraphinus Siccus of 1620, naming Trebnic and Choryński, and recording the Poznań convent as its destination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe parent manuscript had already been dispersed by 1966; leaves passed through the dealer Bruce Ferrini in the 1990s, while another leaf formerly in the collection of Cornelius J. Hauck, significantly trimmed, dated a century too early, and with a German catalogue entry pasted to the verso, was sold at Christie’s New York in 2006, then realising 2,280 USD.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA spectacular fragment of an apparently lost monumental choirbook from one of the great periods of artistic patronage at the Poznań Dominican convent, and, on the evidence presented here, an important addition to the known oeuvre of Błażej Derey.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e","brand":"Julia Woodward Antykwariat","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55081938551125,"sku":null,"price":15000.0,"currency_code":"PLN","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1081\/7922\/6965\/files\/DSC0082623_1.jpg?v=1790109816"}],"url":"https:\/\/antykwariat-woodward.com\/pl\/collections\/illustrated-books.oembed","provider":"Julia Woodward Antykwariat","version":"1.0","type":"link"}