Lot 6
  • 6

The Pietà and scenes from the life of Christ, on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [south-west France (perhaps Grenoble), c.1480-85]

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description

  • Vellum
single leaf, 148mm. by 105mm., with an arch-topped miniature of the Pietà before the Cross, with six other small arch-topped miniatures filling borders on two sides (i. Christ's body in his tomb; ii. the 3 soldiers at the tomb; iii. Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene; iv. the 3 Maries at Christ's empty tomb; v. Christ climbing from his tomb before the angel and 3 soldiers; vi. Christ before an open hell-mouth reaching in to pluck out naked sinners), a 2-line initial 'O' (opening 'Obsecro te ...') in grey branches enclosing 2 flowers, with two lines of text in liquid gold on blue grounds, 19 lines of lettre bâtarde on verso, trimmed around edge by only a few millimetres, minor smudging to base of miniature and upper line of text, else fresh and bright, nineteenth-century wooden frame

Catalogue Note

Four leaves from this unusual and appealing manuscript are in the Louvre (MI 1083 A-E); others have been sold in these rooms, 10 December 1996, lot 29 (afterwards Maggs, Bulletin 21, 1997, no.61), and 6 July 2000, lot 28 (afterwards Maggs cat.1298, no.39); and Christie's, 8 June 2005, lot 9.