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14 - [ENLUMINATION] Leaf from a book of hours, beginning Hours of…
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Estimate €1,500 - €1,800
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Description
[ENLUMINATION] Leaf from a book of hours, beginning Hours of the Virgin (prime). Nativity. In latin, brown ink, gouache and burnished gold on parchment. France, Paris, circa 1480-1490. Sheet size: 192 x 115 mm Ink a little pale, some minor rubbing to the edges, but overall good condition. Verso: 12 lines of text in bastard script in brown ink, end of text for the Hours of the Virgin (Lauds), framed with geometric motifs on a blue or gold background, white and blue acanthus leaves, coloured flowers and foliage; initial painted in blue with white highlights on a dark red background. Recto: 3 lines of text, bastard script in brown ink, curved miniature surrounded by illuminated borders with coloured acanthus decoration, small gold discs, floral and fruit motifs on a liquid gold background, zoomorphic hybrids in the margins, ornate initials; verso, border on three sides with compartmentalised background decorated with acanthus and floral motifs. This folio was painted by an artist named "Master of the Romuléon of Cluny" by François Avril, based on scattered fragments of a Romuléon translated by Jean Miélot, possibly commissioned by René II of Lorraine. The Musée de Cluny holds the only full-page painting of this work known to date, as well as a smaller one (Musée de Cluny, Inv. 804 and 1819). Six other miniatures have been found in the Musée de l'Émail in Limoges (see C. Beaujard, Miniatures et dessins...Exposition Limoges, 1997, p. 43 and ills. 3-8). A few other miniatures are scattered in private collections. Formerly known as the "Master of Morgan 26" (identified by Plummer, see later J. Lauga, Les manuscrits liturgiques dans le diocèse de Langres à la fin du Moyen Age. Les commanditaires et leurs artistes, 2007), the "Master of the Romuléon of the Musée de Cluny" illuminated numerous incunabula vellums for King Charles VIII, most of which were printed for Antoine Vérard, which indicates that the illuminator worked until around 1495, the date on which his hand can be found in a Miroir historial by Vincent de Beauvais. Most of this artist's work can be located in Paris. His hand is to be found in the very fine book of hours, also for use in Rome (Heures dites Rochereau-Le Goix), kept at Chaumont, BM, ms 34, whose layout is reminiscent of the present leaves (see Delaunay, 2000, vol. 2, pp. 55-60) and also in several Heures à l'usage de Paris (Paris, BnF, lat. 1423 and lat. 13296). There are also Heures à l'usage de Langres preserved in New York, PML, M. 26 (J. Plummer suggests that the artist was originally from Langres or at least eastern France). This attachment to eastern France has led Nicole Reynaud to suggest that a manuscript of the Jeu des échecs moralisés (Paris, BnF, fr. 2000), painted by the "Master of the Romuléon of Cluny", is undoubtedly of Langres origin. For more information on this artist, see I. Delaunay, Echanges artistiques entre les livres d'heures manuscrits et imprimés produites à Paris vers 1480-1500, doctoral thesis Paris IV, Paris, 2000, pp. 55-63, 139-141, 243-247, 272-274). Provenance : Former Bosch Foundation collection.
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About the sale ENLUMINATIONS, ANCIENT and MODERN BOOKS
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Auction time 06/17/2026 at 2:00 PM
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