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13 - [ENLUMINATION] Leaf from a book of hours, beginning of the H…
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Estimate €4,000 - €6,000
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Description
[ENLUMINATION] Leaf from a book of hours, beginning of the Hours of the Cross (matins). Crucifixion. In Latin, brown ink, gouache and burnished gold on parchment. France, Troyes, circa 1460. Some rubbing to the nimbus and burnished gold in the diapered background. Sheet size: 143 x 187 mm Recto: Curved miniature surrounded by illuminated borders decorated with coloured acanthus leaves, vine leaves and gold besants, floral motifs and birds on a reserved background, large initial in blue with white highlights on a gold background and coloured vines, 4 lines of text, Gothic script; text on the recto, beginning of the Hours of the Cross (matins). Verso: 15 lines of text, Gothic script, illuminated border in the outer margin, gilded vine leaves and besants, foliage, coloured flowers; initials in burnished gold (1 to 2 lines high) on a pink and blue background with white highlights; endpapers in the same style. Text on verso, continuation of the Hours of the Cross for matins. This leaf is taken from the same Book of Hours as the leaf depicting Saint John on the Isle of Patmos (see lot 12). The illumination is attributable to the Master of the Troyes Missal. This crucifixion bears obvious similarities to the one illustrating the Canon of the Mass in a Missal used in Troyes (Paris, BnF, Latin 865A). The manuscript Paris, BnF, Latin 856A was copied by Jean Coquet, canon of Saint-Quentin de Beauvais, and the miniatures betray a certain degree of archaism: "It is indeed under the obvious influence of the style of the late continuators of the Bedford Master, a style which persisted in Paris until the middle of the century and even beyond, that the painter of Lat. 856A, but this style is interpreted here with a more powerful accent, a fuller treatment of the human figure, and is felt in the monumental plasticity that took hold in painting from the third quarter of the century onwards... The pictorial execution of the illustrations and borders makes this missal stand out as one of the artist's most meticulous works" (Avril, in Avril et Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, no. 97, pp. 182-183, reproduction of the Crucifixion on p. 183). The borders of the present folio are very similar to those of the Troyes Missal, with the same decoration and birds in the margins, suggesting a date of circa 1460.
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About the sale ENLUMINATIONS, ANCIENT and MODERN BOOKS
Auction location
Auction time 06/17/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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