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Lancelot dining with a knight and his sweetheart, miniature cut from the Livre du Lancelot del Lac, in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1440]
Details
Dunois Master
Lancelot dining with a knight and his sweetheart, miniature cut from the Livre du Lancelot del Lac, in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1440]
An evocative miniature from the famous Arthurian romance Livre du Lancelot del Lac illuminated by the Dunois Master.
c.102 x 90mm. The miniature depicting Lancelot dining with a knight and his sweetheart, with another knight in red armour arriving to the right, the scene corresponding to IV, 282:33 in H.O. Summer's edition of the text, The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, 1911; reverse with 16 partial lines of text corresponding to IV, 281:5-16, beginning: 'corut sus a celui' (tiny marginal losses to the gilding, some very light rubbing to the canopy and to the knight in red armour, overall in excellent condition). Mounted and framed.
Provenance:
(1) The Livre du Lancelot del Lac and the Roman de Guiron le Courtois (BnF mss. fr. 356-7) may well be the two manuscripts for which Prigent de Coëtivy, admiral of France, paid Jean Haincelin in 1444, a crucial piece of evidence to the argument identifying the Bedford Master with Haincelin de Haguenau, perhaps the father of Jean Haincelin, the Dunois Master. The Lancelot was dismembered by the 16th century.
(2) By the 19th century the present miniature and 33 others were mounted in a red morocco album ‘with an unidentified, probably French, coat of arms’ (W.R. Jeudwine, Early Fifteenth Century Miniatures, 1962, p.2).
(3) Joachim Napoléon, Prince Murat (1835-1932), a member of the Bonaparte-Murat family: with his bookplate; sold from the estate of his widow, Marie (d.1960), daughter of the Duc d’Elschingen, to:
(4) Wynne R. H. Jeudwine (1920-1984), collector-dealer in drawings, prints, and books: exhibited and offered for sale at the Alpine Club Gallery in London in 1962. The present miniature published in Jeudwine, 1962, no 17. Acquired by:
(5) Alfred Scharf (1900-1965) and Felicie Scharf, née Radziejewski (1901-1991), by descent to the current owner.
Illumination:
The Dunois Master was the assistant of the Bedford Master and then his successor as the dominant figure in Parisian illumination from about 1435. His soft style derives from that of the Bedford Master and he also inherited the older Master's stock of compositional patterns. He built on this legacy, showing great compositional inventiveness in both secular manuscripts and devotional books, like the Hours of the Count of Dunois from which he was named (London, BL. Ms Yates Thompson 3). The Dunois Master's assured painterly technique and narrative skills have created an entrancing epitome of the chivalric ideals at the heart of French court culture. The present miniature depicts Lancelot dining with a knight and his sweetheart, who falls in love with him. A knight in red armour arrives and carries off the host's young brother.
Lancelot dining with a knight and his sweetheart, miniature cut from the Livre du Lancelot del Lac, in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1440]
An evocative miniature from the famous Arthurian romance Livre du Lancelot del Lac illuminated by the Dunois Master.
c.102 x 90mm. The miniature depicting Lancelot dining with a knight and his sweetheart, with another knight in red armour arriving to the right, the scene corresponding to IV, 282:33 in H.O. Summer's edition of the text, The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, 1911; reverse with 16 partial lines of text corresponding to IV, 281:5-16, beginning: 'corut sus a celui' (tiny marginal losses to the gilding, some very light rubbing to the canopy and to the knight in red armour, overall in excellent condition). Mounted and framed.
Provenance:
(1) The Livre du Lancelot del Lac and the Roman de Guiron le Courtois (BnF mss. fr. 356-7) may well be the two manuscripts for which Prigent de Coëtivy, admiral of France, paid Jean Haincelin in 1444, a crucial piece of evidence to the argument identifying the Bedford Master with Haincelin de Haguenau, perhaps the father of Jean Haincelin, the Dunois Master. The Lancelot was dismembered by the 16th century.
(2) By the 19th century the present miniature and 33 others were mounted in a red morocco album ‘with an unidentified, probably French, coat of arms’ (W.R. Jeudwine, Early Fifteenth Century Miniatures, 1962, p.2).
(3) Joachim Napoléon, Prince Murat (1835-1932), a member of the Bonaparte-Murat family: with his bookplate; sold from the estate of his widow, Marie (d.1960), daughter of the Duc d’Elschingen, to:
(4) Wynne R. H. Jeudwine (1920-1984), collector-dealer in drawings, prints, and books: exhibited and offered for sale at the Alpine Club Gallery in London in 1962. The present miniature published in Jeudwine, 1962, no 17. Acquired by:
(5) Alfred Scharf (1900-1965) and Felicie Scharf, née Radziejewski (1901-1991), by descent to the current owner.
Illumination:
The Dunois Master was the assistant of the Bedford Master and then his successor as the dominant figure in Parisian illumination from about 1435. His soft style derives from that of the Bedford Master and he also inherited the older Master's stock of compositional patterns. He built on this legacy, showing great compositional inventiveness in both secular manuscripts and devotional books, like the Hours of the Count of Dunois from which he was named (London, BL. Ms Yates Thompson 3). The Dunois Master's assured painterly technique and narrative skills have created an entrancing epitome of the chivalric ideals at the heart of French court culture. The present miniature depicts Lancelot dining with a knight and his sweetheart, who falls in love with him. A knight in red armour arrives and carries off the host's young brother.
Brought to you by
Sophie Meadows
Senior Specialist