Four cuttings from the Choirbook of King Manuel I of Portugal, from the border of an illuminated manuscript on parchment[Portugal (probably Lisbon), c. 1520] Four rectangular cuttings from the border of a large manuscript leaf, three with panels of portly strawberries, realistic stylised periwinkles, cornflowers, iris and a daisy, and caterpillars, a wasp and a ladybird, on a dull gold ground and within brown frames heightened with liquid gold to look like realistic carved wooden frames, and the other cut from the centre of the bas-de-page and with the Portuguese royal arms (with eight gold castles) beneath a gold crown and on a green and bushy landscape, framed within a grey-blue wreath and gold acanthus leaf sprays, this supported by two putti and all on burgundy and blue grounds flecked with gold, reverse with remains of music, some small chips and scuffs, the cutting with the arms cut twice vertically and then repaired, overall good and presentable condition, 150 by 52mm., 258 by 39mm., 203 by 62mm. and 45 by 85mm. Provenance: 1. From a grand Hispanic choirbook illuminated for Manuel I, 'the Great' (1469-1521, king of Portugal 1495-1521), the patron of Vasco da Gama and other explorers: his arms in form found after the emergence of the Livro do Armeiro-Mor in 1509 (with eight castles). Most probably kept in the Portuguese royal chapel.2. These cuttings first emerging with another small cutting with a bird in Sotheby's, 22 June 1999, lot 48. Text:Manuel's opulent court was noted for the prominence of music within it, and was one of the first centres of polyphony in Iberia. Indeed, the only other choirbook known to have been owned by him, apart from the parent manuscript of the present fragments, is a polyphonic choirbook commissioned by Philip 'the Fair' as a gift to Manuel (now Vienna, ÖNB, MS. 1783). Illumination: The style of illumination here is distinctively that of the southern Netherlands, and Manuel was the principal patron of the artist Antonio de Hollanda (1480-1557), appointing him heraldic officer to the crown in 1518. He worked with Simon Bening on British Library, Add. MS. 12,531 (T. Kren, Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts, 1983, no.9, pp.69-78) and he signed the genealogy of 1534 which was sold in Sotheby's, 5 December 1989, lot 103. "Hollanda illuminated breviaries, psalters, altar books and choirbooks ... He was alive in 1553, when his son Francisco wrote about him to Michelangelo" (Kren, p. 76, citing J. Segurado, Francisco d'Ollanda, 1970, pp. 142 and 504-06; see also S. Deswarte, Les Enluminures de la 'Leitura Nova', 1504-1552, Etude sur la culture artistique au Portugal au temps de l'humanisme, 1977). These cuttings may well be the work of that artist or his workshop.
