Botanical Studies: Bloodwort
Former TitleFlower Illumination: Bloodwort (recto); Suffrage to Saint Clara (verso)
Former TitleYellow Flower/Primrose (recto); Alphabet Text (verso)
Artist
Master of Claude de France
(French, active 1498/1499 - 1520)
Dateca. 1515-1520
MediumTempera colors, gold applied as a watercolor ("shell gold"), and ink on parchment.
DimensionsOverall: 3 13/16 × 2 9/16 inches (9.68 × 6.51 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Milton McGreevy
Object number81-30/110
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 130
Collections
Exhibition HistoryThe Treasury: the Splendor of Liturgical Objects, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 21, 2005–February 8, 2006; August 25, 2010–February 24, 2011; August 19, 2015–March 13, 2016, June 24–December 14, 2021, no cat.
These studies have been extracted from a prayer book and form part of the decoration of initials and text, which continues on the reverse as supplications to saints and martyrs. Representations of flowers in such a context are much rarer than figurative subjects. The examples shown here do not appear to have any specific symbolic meaning, but may reflect the botanical interests of monastic communities where medicinal plants and herbs were always cultivated, especially in cloister gardens. The flowers and insects are highly stylized and were not copied from nature, but more likely from a pattern book of floral designs.
Henri Baderou (1910-1991), France, by February 17, 1956;
Purchased from Baderou by Durlacher Brothers, New York, stock no. 603D, February 17-September 13, 1956 [1];
Purchased from Durlacher Brothers by Milton McGreevy (1903–1980), Shawnee Mission, KS, September 13, 1956-1980;
His bequest to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1981.
NOTES:
[1] Getty Research Library, Los Angeles, Durlacher Brothers Records, Box 14, Ledger 1937-1966, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.
[None known at this time]
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