Lepape relates this impression to a small group of other prints inspired by the work of Jean d'Ypres (active 1490-1508), but not by him. She identifies 13 impressions of this print, making it one of the most widely diffused. The artist, undoubtedly Parisian and active in the first half of the sixteenth century, borrowed heavily from the Crucifixion by Jean d'Ypres, and his decorative motifs are found also in an woodcut of the Virgin of the Rosary, an impression of which is also at The University Of Manchester Library: R241402. See: Lepape, Severine, et al. Mystérieux coffrets: Estampes au temps de La Dame à la licorne (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Musee du Cluny, 2019, pages 59-60.<\/p>
Jean d'Ypres (active 1490-1508) is the artist responsible for most of the prints found within around 110 coffrets - wooden boxes covered with leather and reinforced with iron fittings and locks - into which are pasted a series of these stencilled impressions of devotional themes. Around 30 fugitive prints survive which are thought to have once been pasted within coffrets and subsequently removed.<\/p>
Attribution of the designs for most of the prints found within these coffrets to the Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne de Bretagne is generally accepted, but scholarship on this artist (variously known also as the Master of the Apocalypse Rose of the Sainte-Chapelle, the Master of the Chasse à la licorne, the Master of the Life of Saint John the Baptist, and now identified as the painter Jean d'Ypres) is complex, and the workings of his atelier unclear. The documented career of Jean d'Ypres extends from c. 1490 to 1508, yet, the volume and diversity of his production suggest a flourishing workshop not a lone individual.<\/p>
Schreiber identified two states of this woodcut, one with the chain border, one without.<\/p>
Other known impressions: the same Sacred Monogram impression appears in a different coffret in the sale of the collection of Marie-Thérèse and Andre Jammes, Paris, Drouot Richelieu, 7 November 2007, no. 23 (now Bowdoin College Museum of Art, inv. 2008.8.a); the Sacred Monogram impression also appears in a coffret in a catalogue published by Joseph Baer in 1921 (cat. 675, no. 259), in a coffret sold by Piasa at Drouot in May 2008 (lot 35) and in a coffret sold by Les Enluminures to a private collector; loose impressions are in the collection of National Gallery of Art (see: Field (1965), number 262), Paris, Ècole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (EST MAS 249), and Schreiber notes a copy in Vienna.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Jammes, Marie-Thérèse; Jammes, André" }, { "label": "Acquisition", "value": "
One of a set of three prints purchased by The University of Manchester Library in March 2020.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Coffret with Sacred Monogram" }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)" }, { "label": "Project Information", "value": "
Created as part of the Incunabula Cataloguing Project, funded by the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, and the research project: '\u2018Werck der bücher\u2019 Transitions, experimentation, and collaboration in reprographic technologies, 1440\u20131470', funded by the AHRC/DFG. John Gandy is Project Cataloguer on the Incunabula Cataloguing Project. 'Werck der bücher' is led by Dr Stephen Mossman, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, Department of History, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, (SALC), University of Manchester, and Edward Potten, Principal Consultant, Department of History, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, (SALC), University of Manchester.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Publication", "value": "Paris?: publisher not identified" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "between 1490 and 1500?" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "France, Paris" }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "Latin" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "The John Rylands Research Institute and Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "1 sheet. Leaf height: 165 mm, width: 143 mm." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "R235572" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Christian art and symbolism; Wood-engraving--15th century; Early works to 1800" }, { "label": "Physical Description", "value": "
The impression pasted into a wood box covered with leather, the domed cover reinforced with nine iron fittings, hinges, and a lock (the latch broken), the sides with loops, the interior (measuring 152 x 215 x 116 mm) unlined and with the lock mechanism exposed. On the exterior, the right side is marked in white \"N. 12. / yc\" and \"37bg.\", the inside marked \"N. 90\" and \"N. 90 io\". The leather on the exterior with some worming and with some losses on both sides of the lid.<\/p>
Trimmed to approximately 165 x 143 mm to fit the lid of the wooden box in which the impression is pasted, with commensurate loss of the interlaced border left and bottom.<\/p>
With stencil-applied orange-red and blue-green colours.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "
Impression on paper of a woodcut depicting the Sacred Monogram. A crucifix forming the left stem of the 'H' is accompanied by Instruments of the Passion and two monks, perhaps Carthusians, dressed in white habit, who kneel below the Monogram before a eucharistic chalice; two xylographic banderoles read: Quod admirabile est nomen tuum domine and Sit nomen tuum domine iesu benedictum.<\/p>