Anonymous northern Netherlandish artist

Anonymous northern Netherlandish artist

The Resurrection, historiated initial \'V\' from the Antiphonal of Johannes Okel, for the use of the Lebuïnuskerk in Deventer [Northern Netherlands, Deventer], 1518.

A historically important survival of a principal opening from a lost two-part Antiphonal commissioned by Canon Johannes Okel for the Lebuïnuskerk in Deventer in 1518.



430 x 310mm. Historiated initial \'V\' with the Resurrection within a full border, opening the Feast for the Resurrection \'Vespere autem sabbati que lucescit in prima sabbati [...]\', 10 lines of text and music on a five-line stave, verso with four penwork initials in red, blue and black ink (margins cropped to the frame and somewhat rubbed, some creasing, loss of pigment to the figure of Christ in the historiated initial). Provenance: Johannes Okel, canon of the Church of St Lebuinus (Lebuïnuskerk) in Deventer: a scroll in the upper margin identifies the donor, \'Dns Johannes Okel canonicus huius ecclesie\'. His coat of arms appears in the right-hand margin, along with the arms of the city of Deventer. This is the same Johannes Okel who appears in the church records as having donated two Antiphonals (a summer part and a winter part) to the Lebuïnuskerk in 1518 (see Johannes Lindeborn, Historia sive notitia Episcopatus Daventriensis, Metelen, 1670, p.60 and J. Kuys, Repertorium van collegiale kapittels in het middeleeuwse bisdom Utrecht, 2014, p.87), of which this is a principal opening.



St Lebuinus, patron Saint of Deventer, appears before the Lebuïnuskerk in the lower left-hand margin. In the centre is St Marcellinus, Lebuinus\' companion and a disciple of St Willibrord, with whom he oversaw the mission of Overijssel on the borders of Westphalia in the 8th century. To the right is a female saint (possibly St Radegund?). The packed floral borders and palette of golds and reds can be seen in other manuscripts produced in the Northern Netherlands at the turn of the 16th century, for example in an Antiphonal leaf with an initial \'F\' with Saints Cornelius, Peter, and Augustine at the Free Library in Philadelphia (Lewis E M 67:13). The figures of Christ and the soldiers in the initial \'V\' is detailed and expressive, and shows a very distinctive Germanic influence.