{"id":264,"date":"2017-07-10T17:48:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T16:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/illuminating-objects\/?page_id=264"},"modified":"2020-08-13T12:37:16","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T11:37:16","slug":"german-miniature-picture-bibles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/illuminating-objects\/illuminating-objects-home\/german-miniature-picture-bibles\/","title":{"rendered":"German Miniature Picture Bibles"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Maria Magdalena K\u00fcsel, after Johanna Christina K\u00fcsel, Miniature Engraved Picture books of the Old and New Testament, c. 1690, each 5.7 x 5 cm, \u00a9 The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London, O.1966.GP.40.1 and O.1966.GP.40.2<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

Leafing through The Courtauld Gallery’s German miniature picture Bibles is an enthralling experience. Each measures a tiny 5.7 cm in height and teems with intricate engravings. The books are Split into Old and New Testaments, and were produced by the K\u00fcsel sisters from Augsburg in the late seventeenth century. Josephine Neil explores the world of the K\u00fcsels and their heritage of master engravers, while teasing out the nuances of a market catering to both Catholic and Protestant ideologies.<\/p>\n

Work on this project was carried out by Josephine during her doctorate in Theology and the Arts at King’s College London.<\/p>\n[aesop_parallax height=”1800″ img=”https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/illuminating-objects\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/08\/Miniature-Bibles-007.jpg” parallaxbg=”fixed” captionposition=”bottom-left” lightbox=”off” floater=”off” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”none” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

The K\u00fcsel Sisters<\/strong><\/h4>\n

These Bibles, respectively entitled Dess Alten Testaments Mittler<\/em> and Dess Neuen Testaments<\/em>\u00a0Mittler<\/em>, were most likely created for use in private devotion. Johanna Christina K\u00fcsel (born 1665, active until about 1700) was responsible for the designs and Maria Magdalena (active about 1688\u20131702), was the engraver. While most seventeenth-century \u2018thumb\u2019 Bibles are thought to have been destined for children, the K\u00fcsels\u2019 Bible, with its complex and sophisticated engravings, was probably intended as a portable object for private contemplation.<\/p>\n\n

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A Scene From Merian\u2019s Icones Biblicae, studied alongside the K\u00fcsels\u2019 adaptation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\nThe books were printed without place or date, with only the name of the K\u00fcsel sisters present on the title page. Here, the alternative spelling of \u2018Kuslin\u2019 is used. We know that the sisters belonged to a family of talented printmakers in Augsburg, and were active during the second half of the seventeenth century. The family workshop likely produced images as illustrations in numerous shapes and forms, adapting and reusing compositions for various purposes and formats. The sisters\u2019 father was the engraver Melchior K\u00fcsel (1626\u201383)<\/span> and their grandfather was Matth\u00e4us Merian the Elder (1593\u20131650), whose most famous engravings were for a picture Bible published in Frankfurt in 1625, known as the Icones Biblicae<\/em>. Merian\u2019s engravings dealt in depth with the religious concepts of the time by emphasising the individual\u2019s relationship to God over exterior acts of public worship. The purpose of the Icones<\/em>, Merian stated in his printed dedication, was \u2018not only to amuse, but also, and this pointedly, to enlighten and encourage one\u2019s soul, to trigger reflection of the history involved\u2019. Merian called the\u00a0Icones<\/em> \u2018a small, comfortable edition of the Holy Bible in hopes that it be not only a feast for the eyes but also be moving and maybe put some fear of God into those that need it\u2019. The K\u00fcsel sisters had first-hand knowledge of their grandfather\u2019s prints, basing their engravings on his compositions and adapting them to suit the scale and purpose of their miniature books. The dimensions of the miniature image area are 33 x 35 mm, at most one sixth of the size of Merian\u2019s prints for the Icones Biblicae<\/em>, which measure 102 x 146 mm inside the platemark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Making the Bibles<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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In making their picture books, Christina and Magdalena K\u00fcsel compressed the Old and New Testaments into a selection of prints representing episodes from each book of the Bible. The accompanying German captions, probably printed on the page as letterpress<\/a> in a separate process to the engravings, identify each scene along with the book and chapter of the Bible from which the image derives. There are 132 prints in the Old Testament and 131 prints in the New Testament.<\/p>\n

\"\"The devotional purpose of the engravings was very compatible with the seventeenth-century predilection for beautifully crafted small objects. The K\u00fcsel sisters depicted traditional religious subjects, but in so doing drew attention to their skills as designers of complex engravings. Even if the refinement and craftsmanship of these objects did not captivate the eye, their physical scale alone necessitates close looking. Such delicate and complicated works were not likely produced en masse\u00a0<\/em>for children or as instruments of proselytisation. Instead, they would have been destined for an educated elite within Augsburg and beyond.<\/p>\n

The fine silverwork of the K\u00fcsels\u2019 Bibles, including the clasps engraved with a delicate pattern of leaves and flowers, is original to the books. However, the leather binding, interior marbled endpapers and the trimming and gilding of the pages are likely to have been later additions, possibly dating to the Victorian era. The Bibles were acquired in a small town near Nuremberg in 1851 by the collector and artist Thomas Gambier Parry (1816\u201488). It may be of little surprise that Gambier Parry was a devout Christian.<\/p>\n

The order of the pages do not adhere strictly to biblical chronology. For example, in this set the Fall in Genesis III (numbered p. 6) comes before the Creation of Man in Genesis II (numbered p.4), reversing the natural order of the Genesis narratives. Maybe at the time of the Bibles’ restoration, the sheets became inadvertently jumbled. Further research into these books is needed to find out whether this anomaly is a mistake on the part of the binders, or whether there could be another reason for the layout.<\/p>\n

The two pairs of oval silver plaques on the covers are curious: they show a putto carrying a cross (recto) and a putto with a basket (verso). \u00a0<\/p>\n