Lot 36

Christ Before Caiaphas, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin [France, Brittany (Rennes), c.1430-40]

Estimate

5,500 - 7,500 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

illuminated manuscript on vellum

single leaf, 180x142mm, vellum, with a miniature for Prime in the Hours of the Virgin, 14 lines, 109x72mm, overall in very fine condition, in an attractive 19th-century gilt frame

Catalogue Note

From the collection of the late Neil F. Phillips, Q.C. (1924-97).

This fine miniature was published by Prof. Eberhard König as the work of the MASTER OF WALTERS 221 (Französische Buchmalerei um 1450, 1982, p.120, fig.285). The artist, named after a fragmentary Book of Hours in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, was active in western France in the 1430s and 1440s. A major centre of book illumination was Rennes, a thriving city in Brittany that had been largely spared the ravages of the Hundred Years’ War. The present miniature with Christ before Caiaphas is remarkable for the subtle modelling of faces and drapery, and the suffused luminosity that fills the miniature with a glowing inner light. Three other miniatures from the same manuscript are known to have survived (Berès, Manuscrits & Enluminures, cat.66, c.1975, nos.8-10).