Lot 17

The king of England receiving a herald from the king of France, large miniature on a cutting from an illuminated manuscript chronicle of the Hundred Years' War, on paper [France or southern Netherlands, c.1485]

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Paper

a cutting, 170mm. by 100mm., the king of England, crowned and in his robes of state, before his advisors and tents with his arms, as a beardless herald approaches between two knights in armour, to the rear two other groups of English knights hack and slash at fallen French combatants, pillars at sides, small damage to body of central knight, else excellent condition, 15 lines in 2 columns in lettre bâtarde on reverse, capitals touched in yellow, one 2-line blue initial, in card mount

Catalogue Note

An exquisitely detailed secular miniature, attributed variously to the Bruges illuminator, the Master of 1482 (Ferrini, Medieval and Renaissance Miniature Painting, 1988, no.37), and the French Master of the Vienna Mamerot (Kraus, cat.172, no.23). The style and compostion appear Flemish, and lend support to the former, rather than the latter. The Master of 1482 is named after the frontispiece in a manuscript of the Propriétes des choses by Bartolomeus Anglicus, copied by Jean de Ries in Bruges in 1482 (London, British Library, Royal MS.15 E III). The artist worked on numerous vernacular manuscripts, and by the 1480s was working for the court in Bruges and other bibliophilic patrons in the region, including Louis de Gruuthuse (c.1422-92).

Thirteen miniatures are known from this manuscript, all of which were in the collection of Daniel Burckhardt-Wildt (1752-1819), and sold by his descendants in our rooms, 25 April 1983, lots 153-65; the present miniature was lot 157, to Alan Thomas (his cat.47, 1985, no.3, pl.II).