Beschreibung:

full-page miniature from an illuminated Book of Hours, in Latin on parchment [France (probably Bourges), c. 1475] Single leaf, with a full-page miniature of the Pentecost by Jean Colombe with saints surrounding the Virgin, as they all kneel together in a gloriously detailed stone interior with pillars and statutes, and gaze at the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove as it descends radiating golden light, a reclining figure of a bearded man in the foreground, nonchalantly resting on his elbow on the tiled floor and holding aloft a realistic banderole with 3 lines of exquisite script beginning with an initial in gold camaïeu d’or containing another bearded figure who raises his gaze to the scene above him, all within a frame formed of 2 geometrically patterned columns and an architrave, reverse with 15 lines in same calligraphic hand with hairline strokes from ascenders and capitals touched in yellow that curl inwards on their bodies or lie open, and 4 illuminated initials, miniature slightly rubbed in area of Virgin’s face (perhaps through ritual use), thumbing to frame, upper and outer margin trimmed to frame, 160mm. by 108mm. Jean Colombe (c. 1463-93) is perhaps most well known as the artist who completed the sublime and celebrated Très Riches Heures (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS.65), begun by the Limbourg brothers but left unfinished at the death of John, duke of Berry, in 1416. He came from a family of prominent Bourges artists, and received royal patronage, most notably from Queen Charlotte of Savoy (1443-83), wife of Louis XI.