Beschreibung:

Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximilian I (d.1519) David in Prayer, ?Ghent, c.1500 DAVID IN PRAYER, miniature from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands, ?Ghent, c.1500] A very fine miniature after a Simon Marmion prototype in the ‘La Flora’ Hours, painted by the Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximilian I, Alexander Bening The intimate half-length format invites the viewer not merely to contemplate the scene of King David kneeling in prayer, but to experience it directly: Marmion’s close-up compositions were faithfully absorbed by the Maximilian Master and his workshop and reappear throughout his oeuvre. 115 x 86mm. The present miniature would have opened the Penitential Psalms (verso blank, trimmed to extreme edges of the miniature). Framed. Provenance: Sotheby’s, 5 December 1994, lot 15 (part); Bodo Brinkmann suggests that the two miniatures sold in 1994 came originally from the 'Croÿ-Arenberg Hours' (for a description of this manuscript see Jörn Günther, Masterpieces; Catalogue 9, 2008, no 23). Illumination: This fine miniature was painted by the Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximilian I, an illuminator named from a manuscript made for the Emperor (Vienna, ÖNB Cod. 1907), now widely believed to be Alexander Bening (d.1519). Alexander, or Sanders, was one of the most renowned and sought-after illuminators of his day and father of the celebrated Simon Bening The present composition is taken directly from a miniature depicting David in Prayer in a Book of Hours in Naples known as 'La Flora' (Biblioteca Nazionale, I.B.51), whose completion was attributed to the Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximilian by Bodo Brinkmann (Die Flämische Buchmalerei am Ende des Burgunderreichs: der Meister des Dresdener Gebetbuchs und die Miniaturisten seiner Zeit, Turnhout, 1997); Brinkmann also confirmed the attribution of this miniature to the Maximilian Master in 1994, when it was sold at Sotheby’s alongside an Annunciation to the Shepherds. Begun by the Valenciennes painter and illuminator Simon Marmion (c.1425-1489), the ‘La Flora’ Hours were abandoned or left unfinished on his death. Completed by the Maximilian Master, they survive as a composite and include a series of miniatures by Marmion, many of which are close-up compositions such as our half-length David, notable for their immediacy and sense of drama. Marmion’s compositions served as an immediate source for the Maximilian Master, entering the repertoire of this illuminator and his workshop and appearing in other manuscripts that they illuminated, including a Book of Hours held in Munich (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Clm. 28345) and the so-called Vienna-Poitiers Hours. Another copy of the David miniature, at a slightly further remove, is illustrated in Swarzenski and Schilling, Handschriften und Einzelminiaturen [...] in Frankfurter Besitz, 1929, pl.LXIV, no 149.