Beschreibung:

large miniature on a leaf from an illuminated Book of Hours, in Latin, on parchment [northern France (Paris), c.1415-20] Single leaf, with a three-quarter page miniature, the Virgin seated in the stable as the three kings appear, one kneeling offering a golden chalice to the Child, above 3-line initial in pink with floral infill on burnished gold ground, one smaller illuminated initial and 4 lines of text, the miniature and text within wide decorative border of coloured foliage and diamonds set on burnished gold, sprays of acanthus leaves at corners and full border of rinceaux terminating in prickly gold leaves and coloured foliage, 15 lines of text with two smaller but similar initials as before with floral extensions into border on reverse, tiny chips and small areas of cockling, else excellent condition, approximately 160mm. by 115mm., gilt framed so as both sides visible This striking miniature comes from an early fifteenth-century Book of Hours by a skilled follower of the Boucicaut Master, the leading commercial artist of Paris at the beginning of the fifteenth century. He takes his name from the Book of Hours in the Musée Jacquemart-André, made for Jean de Boucicaut, marshal of France (who briefly appears in Shakespeare’s Henry V on the night before Agincourt, where he was taken prisoner). “During the first decades of the fifteenth century … the Boucicaut Master was transformative, offering innovations that would shape for a generation both book painting and the rapidly emerging art of painting in oil on panel in northern Europe…”; and with the Limbourg brothers, he “elevated French manuscript illumination to new heights of originality that, even as the form continued to flourish and innovate for another hundred years, would rarely be equalled” (Kren, French Illuminated Manuscripts, 2007, p.xix). Another leaf from this manuscript is recorded in the Jeanne Miles Blackburn collection (catalogued by S.N. Fliegel, 1999, no.25, and purchased from Ferrini; now in Cleveland Museum of Art).