Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

A charming miniature from the Christmas cycle by a Parisian illuminator who worked extensively for the royal court.
 
126 x 88 mm. Single leaf, ruled in red for one column of 15 lines (written space: 57 x 39 mm), written in brown ink in a gothic bastarda with cadels, one-line initials in gold on either red or blue ground, flourished in liquid gold, line-fillers in same, two-line initial in blue on red ground, flourished in liquid gold, accompanied with an outer side-border of vine stems, sprouts of acanthus, and oak leaves and nuts, LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURE framed with gold and red, accompanied with a 3-line initial in blue on red ground, flourished in liquid gold, and a full floral border on gold ground, with sprouts of acanthus, roses, tulips, cornflowers, and two birds (slight stain in the lower margin of the floral border, else in very good condition).
 
This leaf introduced the hour of Terce of the Hours of the Virgin in a Book of Hours, most likely for the use of Paris. It represents the conventional subject of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, enclosed within a gold border of flowers and birds, as two shepherds, one standing, the other seated on the ground, greet a golden archangel who bears the news of Christ’s birth. The miniature is enlivened with vibrant colors, generously highlighted with liquid gold, associating densely modelled figures to a watercolor-like landscape.

The shepherds display conspicuous lips, cheeks flushed with red, small eyes highlighted with white, and strongly delineated eyelids, which are hallmarks of the style of the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse. One of the most important illuminators active in late fifteenth-century Paris, the artist was named after a manuscript commissioned by Jean de Chabannes (Paris, BnF, MS Clairambaut 481; see Avril and Reynaud, 1993). He is known from a large number of Books of Hours for the use of Paris, as well as from manuscripts illuminated for Charles VIII, Anne of Britanny, and their court, including the account of Anne’s second coronation in 1504-1505 (Rothschild Collection, Waddesdon Manor, MS 22).

Provenance
Private collection, California, USA, MS 107.

Sister leaves
Two sister leaves on loan from an unidentified American private collection were exhibited in Tampa, FL, in 2004. The first is a text leaf with Psalms 119 to 121, part of the Terce Hour that the present leaf introduced. The second is an historiated leaf, with a large miniature of the Coronation of the Virgin for the Compline hour, illuminated by the same hand (Szépe 2004, pp. 42, 48-49, no. 11, 15).
 
LITERATURE
On the sister leaves, see Helena K. Szépe, ed. Sacred Leaves. Book of Hours. Illuminated Devotion, exh. cat., Tampa, University of South Florida Tampa Library, 2004, pp. 42, 48-49, no. 11, 15. Further literature on the artist, see François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, pp. 274-277, 369.

Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.