This finely painted historiated initial “S”, depicting the Mocking of Christ, originates from a 16th-century Celestine Psalter and is the work of Guillaume Charmolue, an illuminator active between 1530 and 1540. Charmolue, a Celestine monk and artist, worked extensively for the Celestine monasteries of Sainte-Trinité, Marcoussis near Paris, and Notre-Dame-des-Célestins, Ambert outside Orleans, producing a notable series of Psalters and liturgical manuscripts. Though little was previously known about his work, François Avril has brought his contributions to light in ongoing research, confirming his hand in several significant manuscripts. Surviving records from the 17th and 18th centuries mention two Psalters illuminated by Charmolue, reinforcing his association with these prestigious monastic scriptoria.

Within the ornately decorated historiated initial, Christ sits bound and crowned with thorns, enduring scorn from his captors. The figures surrounding him express mockery and derision, their exaggerated gestures heightening the dramatic tension. One tormentor, dressed in striped hose—a common medieval signifier of marginal or transgressive figures—raises his hand in an aggressive posture, ridiculing the bound Christ. Christ holds a palm branch, a visual motif that appears in other illuminated Passion cycles and may reference both mockery and Christ’s impending martyrdom. The figures’ richly colored garments, fluid drapery, and psychological intensity align with Charmolue’s distinctive approach to Celestine manuscript illumination, blending late Gothic expressiveness with early Renaissance spatial depth.

This miniature is part of a small group of surviving cuttings from the same manuscript. Two companion leaves exist: one in a private European collection, depicting The Washing of Pilate’s Hands, and a second at the gallery Les Enluminures also depicting a scene from the Mocking of Christ. The existence of multiple related leaves strongly suggests that the Psalter from which they were excised contained a fully realized Passion cycle.

The verso of this miniature preserves remnants of Psalm texts, likely aligning with the Psalm 68–69 section in the Vulgate numbering, a portion frequently associated with Passion imagery in monastic Psalters. The Les Enluminures leaf may have introduced Psalm 68 (Salvum me fac, Deus), a penitential plea for divine deliverance, while this miniature possibly continues Psalm 68 or introduces Psalm 69 (Deus, in adjutorium meum intende). Such illustrated Psalter cycles visually linked Christ’s suffering to the themes of penitence and divine mercy expressed in the Psalms, enhancing their function as meditative and liturgical texts.

PROVENANCE:

1. France (Marcoussis or Orléans?), c. 1530–1540, originally part of a Celestine Psalter, likely created for monastic use at Sainte-Trinité, Marcoussis, or Notre-Dame-des-Célestins, Ambert

2. A printed stamp of back of the frame, From THE LITTLE GALLERY, 105 Chestnut Street, Springfield 5. MASS.

3. USA, private collection

LITERATURE:

F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscripts à peinture en France, Paris, 1993, pp. 278-28