The Visitation and Pentecost, two miniatures on vellum [France, c. 1430], framed

The Visitation and Pentecost

Two miniatures on two leaves from a Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum. [France (probably Paris), 15th century (1st half, c. 1430)]

two leaves, each c. 170 × 120 mm, ruled in pale red for 14 lines per page, written in a fine Gothic textura script, with rubrics in blue, The Visitation introducing Lauds in the Hours of the Virgin (the antiphon ‘Benedicta tu’ on the verso strongly suggesting the Use of Paris), Pentecost introducing the Hours of the Spirit, the recto of each with a large miniature with an arched top, above a four-line foliate initial and four lines of text, all surrounded by a full border of gold ivy-leaves with stylised acanthus or semi-naturalistic plants, flowers, and fruits in the corners, The Visitation set in a landscape with a diaper ‘sky’, the Virgin standing outside city walls and Elizabeth stepping towards her, apparently reaching one hand to touch her pregnant belly and pointing with the other at her still-small breasts, with heavenly light radiating down on them from a deep blue arc of heaven, Pentecost set in a vaulted interior with stained-glass windows, the apostles sitting on benches, several of them gesticulating, around the Virgin Mary who sits with her hands crossed before her chest, above whose head the Dove of the Holy Spirit descends; the extremities of the border decoration slightly cropped, but overall in very fine condition; in matching large giltwood frames, c. 455 × 360 × 40 mm, each with a cut-out in the mount to allow the back of the leaf to be seen

The backs of the frames have typescript labels by an unidentified German-speaking owner, attributing the illumination to a follower of the Boucicaut Master. Although the style is different, similar compositions can indeed be found in the work of the earlier French illuminator and his circle, see for example, Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master (London and New York, 1968), figs. 215, 252, 292, 297, etc.