Four Miniatures, Northern France ca 1480

FOUR UNUSUAL MINIATURES FROM A BOOK OF HOURS, IN LATIN

[France (eastern?), 15th century (c.1470s/80s)]

manuscript on vellum, 4 cuttings, each c.80x100–105mm with arched scalloped top, the versos preserving 12 (out of 16?) lines of text in two sizes of gothic script, with illuminated 1- and 2-line initials and line-fillers, each with the upper edge slightly cropped, with a row of sewing(?) holes, and some pigment loss, individually framed and glazed c.260x205mm

Provenance

(1) Peter Birmann (1758–1844), Basel landscape painter and art dealer (who owned and sold, for example, the miniatures of Jean Fouquet’s Hours of Etienne Chevalier); the present four miniatures, with two others from the same manuscript, were assembled into a vast album of about 475 leaves and cuttings and sold to: (2) Daniel Burckhardt-Wildt (1759–1819), Basel silk-ribbon merchant, antiquarian, and collector; by descent through his heirs in Basel until sold in these rooms, 25 April 1983, lot 128, bought by (3) Pierre Berès (d.2008).

Illumination

When the texts on the backs of the cuttings were examined in 1983 the images were associated with the following hours of the Virgin: (1) Matins: Christ Among the Doctors, (2) Lauds: The Baptism of Christ, (3) Sext(?): The Transfiguration, (4) Compline: The Agony in the Garden. The surviving 12-line portions of text are ‘consistent with the Use of Auxerre, Châlons, and Besançon, hinting at eastern French and possibly Burgundian origin’.