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St Nicholas and the Miracle at Sea, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands, probably Bruges, 1460s]
Details
Follower of Willem Vrelant
St Nicholas and the Miracle at Sea, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands, probably Bruges, 1460s]
An accomplished miniature from a pocket-sized Book of Hours illuminated in Bruges by an artist working in the style of the prolific mid-fifteenth-century Flemish illuminator Willem Vrelant.
98 x 69mm. The miniature on a verso with full-page border, recto blank (slight marginal cockling, remnants of tape to upper and lower edges). Gilt and velvet Renaissance-style tabernacle frame. Provenance: Christie’s South Kensington, 19 June 2012, lot 3.
This delicately painted miniature is likely to have accompanied the suffrage to St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra; in style and format it is similar to other diminutive Books of Hours illuminated in Bruges in the 1460s by artists working in the style of Willem Vrelant, including a group held at the Walters Museum in Baltimore (mostly notably W.177; also 179, 180, and 183). The quality of work produced by artists working in the Vrelant style can vary but the present miniature is particularly refined: note the foam-crested waves of the sea and the thoughtful addition of a mermaid holding a comb and mirror in the border to complement the miniature scene showing sailors being saved from the sea. Although small in scale, the Book of Hours from which this leaf comes must have been abundantly decorated: the miniature would likely have adorned the Suffrages, indicating that the parent manuscript was blessed with an extended miniature cycle. The suffrage to St Nicholas is particularly appropriate for Bruges, a city of merchants in which the saint was venerated, and perhaps suggests a local commission.
St Nicholas and the Miracle at Sea, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands, probably Bruges, 1460s]
An accomplished miniature from a pocket-sized Book of Hours illuminated in Bruges by an artist working in the style of the prolific mid-fifteenth-century Flemish illuminator Willem Vrelant.
98 x 69mm. The miniature on a verso with full-page border, recto blank (slight marginal cockling, remnants of tape to upper and lower edges). Gilt and velvet Renaissance-style tabernacle frame. Provenance: Christie’s South Kensington, 19 June 2012, lot 3.
This delicately painted miniature is likely to have accompanied the suffrage to St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra; in style and format it is similar to other diminutive Books of Hours illuminated in Bruges in the 1460s by artists working in the style of Willem Vrelant, including a group held at the Walters Museum in Baltimore (mostly notably W.177; also 179, 180, and 183). The quality of work produced by artists working in the Vrelant style can vary but the present miniature is particularly refined: note the foam-crested waves of the sea and the thoughtful addition of a mermaid holding a comb and mirror in the border to complement the miniature scene showing sailors being saved from the sea. Although small in scale, the Book of Hours from which this leaf comes must have been abundantly decorated: the miniature would likely have adorned the Suffrages, indicating that the parent manuscript was blessed with an extended miniature cycle. The suffrage to St Nicholas is particularly appropriate for Bruges, a city of merchants in which the saint was venerated, and perhaps suggests a local commission.
Special notice
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
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