Three leaves with miniatures from an illuminated Book of Hours, on vellum [Northern Netherlands (probably Utrecht), c.1430-50]

3 leaves, 125mm. by 87mm., with three full-page miniatures (for the Hours of the Cross at Matins, None and Compline, showing the Betrayal of Christ, the Crucifixion and the Entombment), within three-sided borders of gold ivy leaves, with central figures of angels on clouds to the side and stylised flowers at bottom, miniatures and borders with pigment losses and slightly rubbed in places, rectos blank

These miniatures are from the same Book of Hours as a leaf with the Pentecost in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Nr. 12835, Winkler, Miniaturen, 1931, p.165). The manuscript was produced by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, a group of illuminators active in the Northern Netherlands between c.1420 to c.1460 (The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 1989, pp.75-86). Their name derives from an Old Testament commentary of Nicholas de Lyra, given by Otto van Moerdrecht, canon of Utrecht Cathedral, to the Carthusian monastery of Nieuwlicht in 1424 (now Utrecht, Bib. Rijksuniv., MS.252). Many manuscripts have survived in this popular style which spread to a number of other centres in the Northern Netherlands. A Book of Hours in The Hague (KB, 135 J 50) is notably similar to the present leaves, and uses the same compositions to illustrate the Hours of the Cross.