Object number1956.5

The Open Missal

Datec. 1570

attributed to Ludger tom Ring, the younger (German, 1522-1584)

CultureWestphalian

MediumOil on oak panel transferred to masonite

DimensionsUnframed: 26 1/4 x 26 1/4 in. (66.68 x 66.68 cm)
Framed: 32 3/8 x 32 1/4 x 3 9/16 in. (82.23 x 81.92 x 9.05 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd (Blanchette Hooker, class of 1931) Fund

On View

On view

Period16th c

Classification(s)

Painting

SignedSigned second page from left center: Ludevi Rinki

BibliographyVassar College Art Gallery. 16th Century Paintings from American Collections (exh. cat.). Poughkeepsie, NY 1964, cat. no. 14 Vassar College Art Gallery. Problem Pictures: Paintings without Authors (exh. cat.). Poughkeepsie, NY 1965, cat. no. 2 Vassar College Art Gallery. An Exhibition in Memory of Agnes Rindge Claflin (exh. cat.). Poughkeepsie, NY 1965, cat. no. 1 Connell, E. Jane. More than meets the eye: The art of trompe l'oeil. Columbia, SC: Columbia Museum of Art, 1985 Kenseth, Joy. The Age of the Marvelous. Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 1991, p. 422 Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille. Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Tromp l’Oeil Painting. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2002, p. 184 Hollman, Eckhard and Jügen Tesch. A Trick of the Eye: Trompe l’Oeil Masterpieces. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2004, p. 34 Mundy, James. The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: Vassar College The History and Collection. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2007, p. 29 Lorenz, Angelika. Die Maler tom Ring. Münster: Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History, 1996, p. 416 Carrol, Jane. "History of the Book." Omnia 19 (2024). https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/omnia-101-history-book-whitney-trettien. ProvenanceBaron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, by 1930; Naylor Collection, Dublin; purchased from Durlacher Brothers, New York, 1956

Vassar Exhibitions

What Now? (Or Not Yet)

Fool Me Once: Trompe l'oeil from the Permanent Collection

Selections from the Permanent Collection (1990)

Body Matters

Exhibition History16th Century Paintings from American Collections, Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 16 - November 15, 1964;

Problem Pictures: Paintings without Authors, Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 13 - November 15, 1965;

Williams-Vassar Exchange Exhibition, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, February 28 - March 18, 1966;

An Exhibition in Memory of Agnes Rindge Claflin, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, April 30 - June 4, 1978;

More than Meets the Eye: The Art of Trompe l’Oeil, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, December 7, 1985 - January 22, 1986 (Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, March 21 - April 27 1986);

The Age of the Marvelous, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, September 21 - November 24, 1991 (North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, January 25 - March 22, 1992, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, May 24 - August 23, 1992, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, October 6 - January 3, 1993);

Highlights from the Vassar College Collection, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, NY, July 13 - September 11, 1993;

Die Maler tom Ring, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, Germany, September 1 - November 10, 1996;

The Art of Illusion: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting in Europe and America, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., October 13, 2002 - March 2, 2003;

What Now? (Or Not Yet), Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, January 21 - September 10, 2023

DescriptionThis strikingly realistic trompe l’oeil representation of a late medieval illuminated manuscript is one of a small number of similar objects produced in Germany in the sixteenth century. An identical painting is in the collection of the Uffizi in Florence. The painting is meant to fool the eye by showing the manuscript as if a sudden breeze had begun to turn the pages of the open book. All the surfaces of the book have been rendered with exactitude, including the vellum pages, the leather straps, and their metal buckles. The ruffled pages have obscured most of the full-page miniature of the Crucifixion on the right, complete with its golden border decorated with lilies of the valley, columbine, corn flowers and other blossoms and insects. The purpose of such a painting is not fully understood; however, it was most likely set up on a lectern in order to surprise a visitor. The attribution to Ludger tom Ring the Younger is based on similar works given to the artist, and to the presence of the words “Ludevi rinki” under the first line of musical notes, practically the only legible words of text in the entire composition.

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu