The Christ Child standing before Mary and The Virgin and Child Enthroned, two miniatures on a bifolium from a Book of Hours, Use of Bourges, in Latin [France (Bourges), c.1480]

bifolium (two leaves), each leaf c.169x110mm, vellum, with the end of the 'Obsecro te...' (f.96r/v) and two miniatures for the prayers 'Fluat stilla de mamilla...' (f.99r) and 'Ave domina sancta Maria...' (f.99v), 31 lines, c.140x73mm, arched tops slightly cropped

From a lavishly illuminated but textually very incomplete Book of Hours sold at Christie's, 25 June 1997, lot 27.

The style of these miniatures are very fine examples of the work of JEAN COLOMBE, one of the most influential artists working in Bourges in the late 15th century. The tall, narrow layout of this manuscript is highly unusual and the iconographic scheme shows that this was once a luxuriously illuminated manuscript. The present miniatures opened prayers to the Virgin which are illustrated only very rarely.