First communion gift: Colette of Corbie given a dismembered baby on a platter.

[Colette of Corbie] / Cornelius de Boudt. Laet ons met Coleta Vraegen / Dat den Heer de sondaers spdert / En Maria sorgh wilt draegen / op dat Godt hun Ziel bewaert / Van het vier en helsche pynen / Die den sondaer voor altyt / Sonder sterven of verdwynen / Lyden moet heel d’ eeuwigheyt / Liever met Coleta vragen / Van den Heere Jesus soet / Hy alle menschen wilt bewaeren / En brenghen in het eeuwight godet / Amen. S.l. [Antwerp], Cornelius de Boudt, s.a. [c. 1687-1730]. [9.9 x 7.3 cm], [1] f. engraving, with contemporary hand-color. Minor toning, minor staining, remnants of mounting on verso, cotemporary inscription on verso.

Rare devotional engraving—here decorated with vibrant contemporary hand-color—depicting Colette of Corbie (1381-1447), reformer of the Franciscan Order of St. Clare, experiencing a vision in which the Virgin Mary presents her with the dismembered Christ Child on a platter.

This example includes an inscription on the verso indicating that the print was given as a gift to a certain Melanie Vanstaen on 22 April 1822 to commemorate her first communion. The fact that the engraving was presented to a young girl in such a context suggests that viewers at the time were not alarmed by the iconography and indeed that it was an appropriate subject for introducing basic concepts of the eucharist to children.

The print, signed in the plate by the Antwerp artist Cornelius de Boudt (fl. c. 1687-1730), is of such unusual subject matter that it gives the impression of being just one episode from a series of events in the life of Colette, but this is not the case: It is a stand-alone subject, and in fact is one of only two episodes of Colettine iconography to become established in early modern print culture (along with her “Vision of the Trees”).

This copy was perhaps already a century old when it was gifted to Melanie Vanstaen, but it is more likely that the copperplate was still being printed a century after it was first engraved by Cornelius de Boudt.

The Dutch verse prayer in the lower half of the print has the reader asking Colette to intercede with Jesus and Mary to achieve salvation and avoid the pains of damnation.

The episode, from the Vita of Colette written in French by her confessor Pierre de Vaux (a.k.a., Pierre de Reims) in 1450, reads as follows:

“One time with great devotion and fervor she asked the Virgin Mary to intercede with her Dear Child to please have pity and compassion for her poor people. During this prayer, there was presented a beautiful dish filled with small pieces of flesh, like those of an innocent child; She [Mary] had this response: ‘How can I intercede with my child for those who, speaking disgusting sins and offenses against him, tear him to pieces every day, into smaller pieces than are in this dish of cut and dismembered flesh? These offenses she imprinted on her Heart for a long time in great sadness and pain.” (Vie de soeur Colette, E. Lopez, ed., p. 91)

(“Une fois, elle priait avec beaucoup de devotion et de ferveur la Vierge Marie, d’intercéder auprès de son cher enfant, qu’il lui plaise d’avoir pitié et compassion e son pauvre peuple. A cours de cette prière, il lui fut présenté un beau plat rempli de petits morceaux de chair, comme ceux d’un enfant innocent; elle eut cette réponse: ‘Comment intercéder auprès de mon enfant pour ceux qui, parles répugnants péchês et offenses contre lui, le mettent en pièce tous les jours, en morceaux plus petits, que n’est dans ce plat la chair découpée et dépecée?’ Ces offenses, elle les imprima longtemps dans son coeur en grande tristesse et douleur.”)

Caroline Walker Bynum remarks of this episode that “Colette saw a vision of the Christ child on a dish, carved up like a piece of meat; afterwards, as she brooded over the horrifying vision, she knew that it represented Christ’s reparation for our sins. Imitating this macerated flesh in her own body, she beat and starved herself and sometimes briefly displayed on her body the marks of Christ’s passion” (Holy Feast and Holy Fast, p. 139).

The subject is not, as far as I know, treated in the early illuminated manuscripts of Colette of Corbie’s Life. Similar devotional engraving by other Antwerp printmakers are known.

I locate examples of this print at the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht and University of Antwerp’s Ruusbroec Institute Library (inv. no. II.12.13 b1-9).

* J. Mueller & N. B. Warren, eds., Companion to Colette of Corbie; U. d’Alençon, Les vies de Ste Colette Boylet de Corbie, réformatrice des Frères mineurs et des Clarisses, 1381-1447, écrites par ses contemporains; U. d’Alençon, Miniatures et documents artistiques du Moyen Age relatifs à sainte Colette de Corbie; E. Lopez, Colette of Corbie (1381-1447): Learning and Holiness, J. Waller, trans., E. Saggau, ed.; E. Lopez, Culture et sainteté: Colette de Corbie, 1381-1447; Pierre de Vaux & Sister Perrine de Baume, R. Blumenfeld-Kosinski, ed. and trans., Two lives of Saint Colette: With a selection of letters by, to, and about Colette; C. van Corstanje, Y. Cazaux, et al., Vita Sanctae Coletae, 1381-1447: The Miniatures of the Manuscript Belonging to the Convent of the Colettine Poor Clares in Ghent; Pierre de Vaux, Vie de soeur Colette, E. Lopez, ed. ; Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women.

$950.00