The Visitation, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin [France (Paris), c.1460-70]

single leaf, c.211x150mm, vellum, with a miniature for Lauds in the Hours of the Virgin, 15 lines, c.95x65mm, recto with one-line initials, line-fillers and a fine panel border, upper margin with traces from previous mounting, the illumination in fine condition

From a Book of Hours with the engraved bookplate of SIR JOHN STIRLING MAXWELL, his sale Christie's, 20 May 1958, lot 961, sold for £720; offered by Maggs, Cat. 861, 1959, no.66, for £1,050; sold in our rooms, 11 July 1978, lot 51 (with col.pl.), for £13,000 to Schumann; later broken up and this leaf sold in 2001 by Eichenberger to the present owner.

The present leaf was folio 49 in a Book of Hours apparently made for the Use of Autun. It included 17 large miniatures by three different artists, the present one described as showing a strong Flemish influence, the second one as working in a more Parisian tradition and the third one as completely Flemish in style. The fine miniature with the Visitation shows a strong influence of the COÉTIVY MASTER, an artist active in Paris but whose style is marked by atmospheric effects of light and shadow suggesting that he was originally trained in northern France or the southern Netherlands. The composition and the refined style of the present miniature are repeated in a Book of Hours for the Use of Paris, today in Rio de Janeiro (Bibl. Nac., MS 1.212.392) that has been linked to two other Books of Hours, also for the Use of Paris, London, BL, Stowe 25 and Paris, Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, MS 2685 (unpublished catalogue entry by F. Avril).