Lot 7

King David, miniature on a leaf from an illuminated Book of Hours, manuscript on vellum [Spain (perhaps Castile), c.1480]

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

single leaf, 155mm. by 112mm., with a large rectangular miniature in demi-grisaille, 120mm. by 80mm., enclosing King David kneeling in prayer with a book open before him as God's face appears to him in the upper right-hand corner of the miniature, his robes very delicately hemmed in liquid gold, before a courtyard with a fountain, rolling hills, a shepherd with a long horn and a medieval walled city in the background, all before a deep blue sky with clouds picked out with tiny strokes of liquid gold, border on two sides with acanthus leaves, bursts of foliage, flowerbuds, six birds, two dogs, and two drolleries also in demi-grisaille and heightened with gold, verso blank, trimmed at edges, minor scuffing to blue of sky, and some rubbing to border with smudge in mid-page, else very good condition

Catalogue Note

This miniature is from a highly unusual Spanish Book of Hours. The densely packed border decoration is distinctively Spanish, but the use of demi-grisaille on slightly tinted vellum suggests a Flemish model. The technique became fashionable in the southern Netherlands, but was perfected in Spain, and appears in a number of Castilian manuscripts (Bordona, Spanish Illumination, 1930, II, pp.59-60). Here it is particularly well executed, with a depth of shading and detail in the figure of David which draws the viewer's eye to him in the centre of the miniature.

A small group of other cuttings from this appealing manuscript emerged on the market a few years ago (cf. Gunther, Collecting Miniatures, Brochure 9, no.43; but that illustrated there trimmed to the edge of the miniature).