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

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

bodycolour on vellum

single leaf, c.180x141mm, vellum, with a miniature for the Hours of the Cross, 14 lines, c.109x72mm, faces of protagonists smudged and lightly retouched, trimmed close to borders

Catalogue Note

From the collection of the late Dr F. Jossi, sold in our rooms, 4 December 2007, part of lot 27, to the present owner.

Five other miniatures from the same manuscript are known to have survived: Christ before Caiaphas, sold in our rooms, 5 July 2016, lot 36; St Sebastian, offered at Christie's, 8 December 2016, lot 22, previously Berès, Manuscrits & Enluminures, cat.66, c.1975, no.10; the Entombment, ibid., no.8; the Last Judgment, ibid., no.9; and the Pietà, Musée Dobrée, Nantes, inv. 896.1.4159 (P. Charron et al., Trésors enluminés des musées de France, Pays de la Loire et Centre, 2013, no.27).

This fine miniature belongs to a Book of Hours that must have been broken up by 1896, when the Nantes museum acquired its leaf. The illumination was published by Prof. Eberhard König as the work of the MASTER OF WALTERS 221 (Französische Buchmalerei um 1450, 1982, p.120). Most remarkable is the subtle modelling and the suffused luminosity that fills the miniature with a glowing inner light.