Master of Jean Rolin II (active c. 1445–1465)

The Crucifixion

The Left Panel of a Canon Diptych from a Missal produced for Cardinal Jean Rolin II

Paris, perhaps Autun, France, c. 1450 –1460

Dimensions: 274 × 233 mm.

Tempera, ink, and gold on vellum

Price: $65,000

This Crucifixion miniature is a masterpiece of mid-15th century French illumination and among the most important surviving works by the Master of Jean Rolin II. It once formed part of a Missal commissioned by Cardinal Jean Rolin II (1408–1483), bishop of Autun and son of Nicolas Rolin, the powerful Burgundian chancellor and famed art patron. Originally, the Crucifixion was paired with a God the Father miniature, now preserved in the Musée Rolin, Autun (Société Éduenne, Album Bulliot no. 1), forming a pendent diptych that introduced the Canon of the Mass. Together, these fragments testify to the grandeur of the Cardinal’s luxury Missals. There are four in total; three preserved in the Bibliothèque municipale d’Autun and one at Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, all illuminated by the same master illuminator. It is extremely likely that the present Crucifixion miniature, with its own unique survival story, shares its origin with Autun MS 108A (S.131), alongside the God the Father and two further leaves (St. Andrew and the Adoration of the Magi), also preserved in the Musée Rolin album.

The Crucifixion unfolds across three registers. In the foreground, the Virgin Mary collapses into Saint John’s embrace, flanked by Mary, wife of Clopas and Salome. Mary Magdalene kneels at the base of the Cross, her scarlet robe and flowing hair offer an intimate counterpoint to the verticals above. The crossbones and a fragment of hip bone evoke the barren ground of Golgotha. At center, the Cross with Christ hanging beneath the painted INRI titulus, his body forming the compositional axis. On either side, the good thief Dismas and the defiant Gestas writhe in agony, their torsos bound with ropes. Longinus raises his lance to pierce Christ’s side, while Stephaton stands silently beside him. To the right dominate three nobles on horses: two wear blue hats, one grips a crossbow, the other a sword. At center a noble in a fur-trimmed brown hat sits astride a gray steed. Above them, a narrow banner proclaims the centurion’s words: Vere Filius Dei erat (“Truly he was the Son of God!”). Beyond, a company of armored soldiers and knights gather in silence, spears and pennons raised. The background opens onto a Burgundian landscape of rolling hills, dense forests, and towers of a distant city, perhaps Autun. A pale sky streaked with clouds holds a golden sun and silver moon, a cosmic witness to the Passion.

Despite pigment loss, especially among the Virgin, Saint John and the other figures faces, the confident underdrawing remains clearly visible, offering a rare glimpse of the artist’s preparatory hand. The miniature is framed by gilded rinceaux with acanthus leaves, fruit, and insects, all hallmarks of Parisian luxury illumination. Most significant for provenance is the fragment of a bishop’s crozier in the lower margin, identical to the crozier that breaks into the composition of the God the Father miniature. This heraldic device, emblematic of Cardinal Rolin, provides a vital link between the leaves and asserts the Cardinal’s ecclesiastical authority and patronage.

The placement of this ensemble within Rolin’s commissions has long been debated. In 1924, Abbé Leroquais identified the Musée Rolin leaves as belonging to Autun MS 108A (S.131). Later scholars, including Peter Rolfe Monks, suggested alternatives, especially MS 110 (S.133). Monks proposed that the God the Father miniature in Lyon (Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. D 471) might have formed the pendant. Digitization of the surviving Rolin Missals in Autun now permits closer comparison. The heraldry, border design, and proportions of the present Crucifixion and the Musée Rolin leaves align most closely with MS 108A, lending weight to Leroquais’s original attribution.

The Master of Jean Rolin II was one of the most accomplished illuminators of his generation. His style reveals the depth of Flemish influence that shaped Burgundian manuscript illumination in the mid-fifteenth century. From Rogier van der Weyden and the Flemish Primitives he absorbed a heightened pathos and dramatic naturalism. Rogier’s monumental Last Judgement polyptych, painted for Nicolas Rolin at Beaune (1443–1451), likely served as a direct point of reference for both Jean Rolin and his illuminator, its solemn grandeur and spatial choreography resonating in the present Crucifixion. Parallels have been drawn with the stage-like compositions of André d’Ypres and the sculptural style of Guillaume Spicre, active in Dijon and later Palermo. Together, these affinities situate the Master of Jean Rolin II within the broader current of Burgundian art, where Flemish panel painting, Burgundian sculpture, and Parisian manuscript illumination intersected to form a richly cosmopolitan style.

His hand is recognizable in all four Missals for Jean Rolin as well as in deluxe manuscripts such as the Horloge de Sapience (Brussels, KBR, MS IV.1114), the Hours of Simon de Varie (Malibu, Getty Ms.7 & The Hague, KB 74 G 37+a) on which he collaborated with Jean Fouquet, the Dubois Master and the Bedford Master, and there are many other unique surviving codices and fragments in the institutional and private holdings. The Lyon Missal (MS 517) offers the strongest comparison, uniquely preserving a Crucifixion and its pendant God the Father, the only surviving Rolin diptych still in place. Well known in the literature, these paired miniatures confirm the logic of facing images at the Canon of the Mass and provide an essential point of reference for the present leaf.

This Crucifixion, reunited conceptually with its God the Father pendant in Autun, reclaims its place within one of the great liturgical projects of fifteenth-century Burgundy. As one of the finest surviving leaves by the Master of Jean Rolin II, it embodies both the grandeur of a luxury Missal and the devotional intensity that shaped the artistic identity of its age. Few fragments so vividly preserve the intersection of patronage, theology, and artistic innovation, making this miniature not only a distinguished example of French manuscript painting but also a vital witness to the cultural vision of Cardinal Jean Rolin.

PROVENANCE

Commissioned by Cardinal Jean Rolin (1408–1483)

Martin Brimmer (1829–1896), Boston, president of the Museum of Fine Arts

Charles Henry Parker (1860–1948), Boston

Sotheby’s, London, 22 June 1982, lot 19

Sotheby’s, London, 18 June 1991, lot 21

Les Enluminures, Catalogue 1, #25, Illuminations, Gouaches, Drawings from the 12th to the 17th centuries, Paris, 1992

Private Collection, USA

LITERATURE

Pellechet, Marie. Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France. Autun. Paris: 1883.

Leroquais, Abbé Victor. Les sacramentaires et les missels manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, vol. II. Paris: 1924, pp. 447–448 (Autun MS 108A).

Spencer, Eleanor P. “The Master of Jean Rolin: A Parisian Illuminator of the Mid-Fifteenth Century.” The Art Bulletin 28, no. 4 (1946): 275–293.

Spencer, Eleanor P. “L’Horloge de sapience.” Scriptorium 17, no. 2 (1963): 277–299.

Perrat, Jean. Le Livre au siècle des Rolin. Exhibition catalogue. Autun: Musée Rolin, 1985

Sterling, Charles. La peinture médiévale à Paris, 1300–1500. Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1987.

Les Enluminures, Catalogue 1, #25, Illuminations, Gouaches, Drawings from the 12th to the 17th centuries,, Paris, 1992

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

Monks, Peter Rolfe. “The Crucifixion Leaf from a Missal of Cardinal Jean Rolin: A Reconsideration.” Bulletin of the Medieval Manuscripts Society of the British Library 4 (1997): 2–17.

Monks, Peter Rolfe. “Leaves from a Missal of Jean Rolin.” Studies in Bibliography 52 (1999): 227–249.