King David in Prayer, miniature, signed by Ferdinand de Pape [southern Netherlands (Bruges), 1880]

miniature, 140x95mm, vellum, laid down on wood, in excellent condition, perhaps in its original 19th-century frame

This work is signed and dated in tiny red script beneath the painted frame on the dark ground by the 19th-century illuminator FERDINAND DE PAPE (1810-85) (see W. Dumond, ‘The Bruges Illuminator Ferdinand de Pape’, in The Revival of Medieval Illumination, 2007, pp.245-67). De Pape was a well-known and important representative of the revival of medieval illumination, attaining national and international success. His clients were mostly aristocrats from Belgium, France, England, Germany, Italy and other countries. In 1927 his work featured in the major exhibition of medieval illuminations and bindings in Bruges (Tentoonstelling van miniature en boekbanden, pp.46-7, 98-9). He started work as an 'illumination-painter and artist in old writing' in the late 1830s when he opened a workshop in Bruges, and brought his brother François (1814-63) into the enterprise. François ceased being a partner in the workshop in 1859, but Ferdinand continued to work in association with his son, Charles, for a further 23 years until he was forced to retire in 1882 due to failing eyesight. Ferdinand called himself a 'peintre en moijen âge'; his known works suggest that his idea of the Middle Ages applied almost exclusively to 15th- and early 16th-century illumination and painting from Bruges.