Live
Premium [ENLUMINATION]. Saint Catherine and a standing saint holding…
See original version (French)
[ENLUMINATION]. Saint Catherine and a standing saint holding…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 16
[ENLUMINATION].
Saint Catherine and a standing saint holding an open book (Saint Genevieve?).
Illumination taken from a liturgical manuscript (or independent composition, pious image?).
France, Paris, circa 1530-1540.
Attributable to a Parisian artist from the "Etienne Colaud group" (Martial Vaillant? active in Paris from 1523 to 1560 or a Parisian artist close to the painter from Paris, BnF, NAF 25165?).
Sight size: 230 x 150 mm
Framed folio. Traces of writing from the manuscript or the facing leaf (discharge, white lettering on the saint's cloak (Geneviève?) and on the ground, one can make out (upside down): "Mem..." or "Comme..." (for Memoria? Commemoratio?). (for Memoria? Commemoratio?). Miniature framed in liquid gold, with Renaissance arabesque and acanthus decoration. Good condition overall, with some minor loss of paint surface.
This large folio shows two full-length figures of saints, one easily identifiable by her attributes, Saint Catherine with her sword and the wheel of her torture, the other simply holding a book (Saint Genevieve) and difficult to identify without the associated text.
The artist is certainly to be found among the "Colaud Group".
An illuminated Book of Hours for the Dauphin François de France, the future François II (arms on ff. 14 and 76v) dated 1555 (Paris, BnF, NAL 104). This book of hours has been linked to a record of payment to Martial Vaillant (Gallant?) "for the illumination of a pair of hours for the service of my lord" (AN, KK 106, f. 2; see Léon de Laborde, La Renaissance des arts à la cour de France. Études sur le seizième siècle, t. 1, Paris, 1850, pp. 305-306; Cousseau, 2016, p. 88). Its stylistic features are comparable to those of the present illumination. It should be noted that Cousseau stresses the somewhat archaic nature of the miniatures in the Hours of François II, dated 1555-1557 (Paris, BnF, NAL 104), which reproduce Bellemari motifs from the years 1538-1530.
An illuminator and historian, Martial Vaillant is documented from 1523 to 1562. He is thought to have been Etienne Colaud's son-in-law, having married one of Colaud's four daughters (Cousseau, 2016, p. 286). He was a member of the Confrérie de Saint-Jean l'Evangéliste, founded at the altar of the church of Saint-André-des-Arts in Paris, which governed the book trade and illumination. This would explain a certain stylistic proximity with the works of the "Etienne Colaud group", a group of artists working in a common aesthetic with that of Etienne Colaud, a Parisian artist active from 1512 to 1541).
Another artist whose influence can be seen in the present miniatures (lots 16 and 17) is the one who painted a manuscript of Plutarch, Life of Hannibal, translation by Simon Bourgoing, a copy made for Gui de Baudreuil, abbot of Saint-Martin-aux-Bois from circa 1491-1492 to 1530 (Paris, BnF, NAF 25165; see Cousseau, 2016, pp. 162-163, who compares the Parisian artist to the one who painted the Hours for the Aleaume-Tenon couple, Arsenal, MS 1175). It should be noted that the illuminations in this manuscript are attributed to an artist from the "Collault circle", and Gui de Baudreuil was also the commissioner of a dismembered Missal known as the "Missel de Gui de Baudreuil", also painted in the orbit of Etienne Colaud. Gui de Baudreuil also commissioned the French translation of Erasmus's L'Éducation d'un prince chrétien, intended by Guillaume de Montmorency for the Dauphin of France, François, son of Louise de Savoie (Paris, Coutau-Begarie, 14 October 2022, lot 38, pre-empted by Chantilly, Musée Condé), whose illumination also betrays a milieu close to the two present illuminations (lots 16 and 17).
See also Cousseau, M.-B. Etienne Colaud et l'enluminure parisienne sous le règne de François Ier, Tours et Rennes, 2016, pp. 87-88: "Other documents concerning Martial Vaillant show that he too held an important place on the Parisian artistic scene. In June 1523, he was one of the governors of the brotherhood of Saint-Jean l'Evangéliste... In 1542, when he inherited part of the estate of Etienne Colaud, he was described as a bourgeois of Paris. On the "Colaud group", see also the work of M. Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts. The Sixteenth Century, London-Turnhout, Harvey Miller Publishers, 2015.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits:
Contact organization
Delivery methods
You may also like