Lot 19

The Entombment of Christ, large miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [northern France (doubtless Paris), c.1450]

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

single leaf, 117mm. by 87mm., with a large arch-topped miniature, 63mm. high, enclosing Christ being laid in a stone sarcophagus by Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene and a crowd of grieving disciples, the three nails on the ground before the tomb, all above a 3-line initial in blue with floral infill on burnished gold ground and 3 lines of text (opening compline of the Hours of the Cross, 'Converte nos deus ...'), full border of acanthus leaves, realistic foliage with flowers and bunches of grapes and enclosing a scene of lamentation in the bas-de-page, negligible damage to Christ's face and the faces of some of the mourners in the border, else bright and fresh and in good condition, laid down in a card mount

Provenance

Provenance: Frédéric Spitzer (1815-90), of Paris; his sale, 14 April-16 June 1893, lot 3272; Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 14 November 1975, lot 36; S. Hindman, Medieval & Renaissance Miniature Painting, Ferrini and Fogg, 1988, pp. 50-1 and 123, no. 25, with plate on front cover; Ferrini, cat.2 (1989), no.18; Les Enluminures, cat.7 (1998), no.30.

Catalogue Note

This is probably the finest and most emotionally complex of a series of delicate miniatures in semi-grisaille from a major Book of Hours illuminated by the Dunois Master, now identifiable with almost absolute certainty as Jean Haincelin the younger, presumed son and successor of Jean Haincelin de Hagenau, now accepted as the Bedford Master (cf. E. König, The Bedford Hours, 2007, pp.35-36; and the description of the documented Lancelot miniatures by the same artist, Sotheby's, 2 December 1997, lot 65). According to Nicole Reynaud (Avril and Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, p.37), the present Book of Hours was made for a member of the family of Jouvenel des Ursins. Other closely related Books of Hours by the same artist include the Coëtivy Hours (Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, W. MS.82), the Dunois Hours itself (London, BL, Yates Thompson MS 3), and the Hours of Simon de Varie, in which Haincelin collaborated with Jean Fouquet (The Hague, KB, Ms. 74 G 37a, and Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS 7).

The present miniature is illustrated in J. Marrow, The Hours of Simon de Varie, 1995, p.16, fig.1 ("American private collection"). Other leaves from the same manuscript include Paris, Musée Marmottan, MS 149, from the collection of Georges Wildenstein; and London, Victoria & Albert Museum, E.4580-83, from the collection of George Salting.