Description
two leaves, (a) leaf from a Book of Hours, 169mm. by 118mm., with a three-quarter page arch-topped miniature composed of a complex Gothic archway, enclosing the Annunciation to the Virgin, the Virgin kneeling before her prie dieu in a richly decorated Gothic interior, gazing at an open book as the Angel holding a sceptre appears before her and the Holy Spirit (in the form of a tiny white dove) descends from the highest corner of the room where God appears, full tessellated border with acanthus leaves, foliage and fruit on dull-gold or white backgrounds, with two hairy wildmen (one with a sword and buckler, one with a mirror), one 4-line white initial, 15 lines on verso with four 1-line initials on burnished gold grounds with line-fillers in same, and two 2-line initials containing shoulder-length portraits of two men, in excellent condition, Rouen, c. 1470; (b) leaf from a Book of Hours, 190mm. by 124mm., with a three-quarter page miniature within two marble pillars and a crocketed Gothic canopy, enclosing in its upper scene the Massacre of the Innocents, with three soldiers in elaborate gold and silver armour putting children to the sword as their mothers attempt to shield them, all before Herod enthroned holding sceptre, a member of his court dressed as a medieval ecclesiastic standing next to him, in the bas-de-page the same with two soldiers attacking two women and a baby before a grassy landscape, one 3-line white initial on dull-gold ground enclosing a swan, 16 lines on verso and a tessellated border panel with flowers and fruit, excellent condition, central France (perhaps Poitiers), c.1460; both professionally framed
Catalogue Note
Item (a) is particularly fine miniature from a Rouen Book of Hours, with a wealth of well executed detail, and numerous additional touches such as the complexity of the Gothic interior and the frame of the miniature, and the wildmen in the border. The heavy-lidded eyes, vigorous arm movements and large splayed hands identify item (b) as the work of a follower of the Master of Adélaïde of Savoy (Master of Poitiers 30; see Avril et Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à Peintures en France, 1993, pp. 123-6 for this artist). A similar miniature to the present example can be found in the Hours of Adélaïde of Savoy (from which the artist takes his name), now Chantilly, Musée Condé 76, fol. 68v (illustrated in E. König, Französische Buchmalerei, 1982, fig. 22).
