The victory of the Medes and the Persians over the Assyrians, attributed to the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook, large miniature on a leaf from an Alexander Romance, from an illuminated manuscript in French, on vellum

single leaf, 362mm. by 257mm., on recto: a large arch-topped miniature, 180mm. by 172mm., enclosing a battle scene with the kings of Media and Persia on horseback, leading their forces in a cavalry charge through a band of Assyrian foot-soldiers, set in a grassy landscape with rocks and trees in the foreground, with single decorated border-panel filled with acanthus-leaves and other naturalistic foliage, and a woman emerging from a flower bud, wearing a veil and holding a mirror on a stand from which her own reflection looks back at her, one 4-line initial in blue with delicate white penwork and coloured floral infill on burnished gold ground, rubrics and folio number '277' in red, double column, 10 lines in brown ink in a skilled lettre batârde; on verso, double column, 39 lines of text, two paragraph-marks in blue and red, slight trimming to upper left-hand side of leaf, some minor discoloration at corners and small oval stain in bas-de-page, else in outstanding condition with wide and clean margins, in wooden frame

provenance

1. Most probably produced in Bruges by the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook (active c. 1475-1505).

2. Both this and the other leaf  from the manuscript (see below) were owned by Dr Francis Springell (1898-1974); exhibited in Loan Exhibition of Drawings by Old Masters, Colnaghi & co., 1959, no. 2, and Exhibition of Art from Private Collections in the North West and North Wales, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1960, no. 15; subsequently sold in our rooms 28 June 1962, lot 54: attributed to the Master of Anthony of Burgundy by Otto Pächt.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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illumination

This leaf comes from an apparently lost manuscript compilation similar to the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, which included the Alexander Romance and the episode portrayed in the present miniature. The other recorded leaf from the manuscript (fol. 277) was sold by Christie's, 9 December 1983, lot 198, and was subsequently Les Enluminures, Cat. 8 (1999), no. 24 at 840,000 French francs; reproduced there and in B. Brinkmann, Die Flämisch Buchmalerei am Ende des Burgunderreichs, 1997, ii, pl. 91, with comment i, 107-8.

The artist is identified by Dr. Brinkmann as the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook himself, named after a manuscript from there: Sächs. Landsbibl., MS. A.311, dated to c. 1470. He was predominately active in the last quarter of the fifteenth century in Bruges and collaborated with some of the best artists of his day (including the Master of Mary of Burgundy and Simon Marmion), working for noble courtiers and bibliophiles such as Louis de Gruuthuse; Jean Gros, the first secretary of Charles the Bold; Jan Crabbe, the abbot of Duinen; and Guy de Brimeu, lord of Humbercourt and one of the duke of Burgundy's most trusted advisors. The border decoration here is similar to that in various Books of Hours by the master (see for example British Library, Addit. MS. 18,851), and the miniature compares closely with those of the master's early secular works, such as the two illuminated copies of an incunable, Valerius Maximus' Factorum et dictorum memorabilia (Bruges, 1477), which are in his hand; both reproduced in Brinkmann, ii, pls. 75-77 & 78-83.

The present miniature contains a detailed battle scene centred around two kings dressed in medieval armour, one wearing a helmet and crown with his bearded face exposed, the other with a crown and full-helmet, both with raised swords leading a cavalry charge through (and indeed over) the Assyrian forces, who lie scattered and trampled under the horses' hooves. The armour and livery receive especial attention, with an array of types of armour and weapons in view, and small white single-hair brush-strokes used to pick out each row of links in the soldiers' chainmail. The flurry of action of the mêlée in the centre of the miniature is perhaps offset by the individual combat-scene in the right-hand of the foreground, in which a single heavy-set foot soldier, who has forced an Assyrian to his knees, is grasped by the ankle by the Assyrian, locking the pair together as both swing curved short-swords at one another. All set in a rocky pass with trees, before a wide open landscape, with crows wheeling in the sky above the battle.