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Premium [ENLUMINATION]. Saint John the Baptist
Illumination from a b…
See original version (French)
[ENLUMINATION]. Saint John the Baptist
Illumination from a b…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 12
Description
[ENLUMINATION].
Saint John the Baptist
Illumination from a book of hours, illustrating the Suffrages (suffrage to Saint John the Baptist).
France, Paris (Group of the Master of Bedford) (Master of Dunois, Jean Haincelin?), circa 1440-1450.
Illumination with a hole in the pictorial surface camouflaged by a thin strip of gilt paper. A few folds or small cracks in the pictorial surface. Otherwise in good condition.
Dimensions: 100 x 65 mm
Curved at the top, this illumination depicts Saint John the Baptist standing in a steep, rocky landscape, with a few trees with lighter foliage and grass on the ground. Two "wild beasts" can be seen in the background, echoing the condition of a frugal ascetic in a wild desert environment: a bear and a lion spring up behind the rock formation on the right. The holy man is holding a book on which the Lamb of God is standing.
We do not know which Book of Hours this illumination comes from. The illuminator certainly belonged to the Bedford Group, artists who were influenced by or worked in the flourishing workshop of the Master of Bedford (Haincelin de Haguenau), active in Paris in the first half of the 15th century (c. 1405-1435), so named for the major commissions they carried out for John of Bedford, Duke of Lancaster. One of these personalities was the Master of Dunois, reputedly active from circa 1435 to 1466, who owes his name to the Hours of Jean de Dunois (London, BL, Yates Thomson 3), illegitimate son of Louis I of Orléans (name given by N. Reynaud). Sometimes referred to as the "principal associate of the Bedford Master", it has been suggested that the Dunois Master was a painter by the name of Jean Haincelin (documented from 1438 to 1449) who worked for a number of clients close to Charles VII, including Prigent de Coëtivy, Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins and others. The presence of the bear in our illumination is perhaps no coincidence (the emblem of the Jouvenel des Ursins family is omnipresent in the Hours of the Chancellor Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins (Paris, BnF, NAL 3226). The elongation of Jean-Baptiste's limbs and the half-glazed treatment of the flesh are reminiscent of the manner of the Master of Dunois, as are the landscapes, rock formations and characteristic vegetation. In the Hours of Jean de Dunois (London, BL, Yates Thomson 3), the stylistic similarity with an illumination depicting the hermit saint Marie l'Egyptienne and Zozime (fol. 287) attributed to the Master of Dunois should be noted.
See Deldicque, M: Deldicque, M., M. Hermant, S. Lagabrielle and S. Lepape (dir.), Les arts en France sous Charles VII (1422-1461), Paris, 2024, cat. 45, 50, 54, 57; Reynolds, C. "The Workshop of the Master of the Duke of Bedford: Definitions and Identities", ed. by G. Croenen and P. Ainsworth, Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, Louvain, 2006, pp. 437-472; Villela-Petit, Inès. Le bréviaire de Châteauroux, Paris and Châteauroux, 2003, pp. 47-48; "Les Heures de Dunois", in Art de l'Enluminure, June-July-August 2008; Avril, F. and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, pp. 23, 36, 37.
More recently, see the notes on the Master of Beford (Haincelin de Haguenau) and the Master of Dunois (Jean Haincelin) in the catalogue Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (Chantilly, 2025), particularly p. 277. We should also mention the embroidery depicting a full-length portrait (Lyon, Musée des Tissus, Inv. 24054) of the "precursor" Jean-Baptiste, who was strongly influenced by the art of the Limbourg brothers (see Exhibition Très Riches Heures (2025), cat. 76) and whose model is clearly reproduced in our illumination, in inverted form.
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