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Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Paris, c.1400]
175 x 115mm. i + 117: 112, 26, 38, 42, 5-98, 103, 11- 158, 166, apparently COMPLETE, traces of catchwords, signature letters c-r in gutters of first 4 rectos of gatherings 2-16, pencil foliation 1-118 followed here, 15 lines of gothic bookhand in black ink between two verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in pink, text justification: 92 x 57mm, rubrics in red, one-line initials in burnished gold against grounds and infills of pink and blue with white penwork, two- to four-line initials in blue or pink with white monochrome patterning, grounds of burnished gold, ivy-leaf spray in infills and into the margin, eight four-line initials with three-sided borders with bar baguettes and ivy sprays, two with dragons in upper margin, NINE MINIATURES accompanied by full-page borders composed of baguettes of gold, pink and blue and ivy-leaf sprays (water-staining to lower outer corner of ff.1-9, occasional small surface losses of pigment with some retouching of the Christ child and the Virgin's mantle, robe and right hand on f.19v, Gabriel's sleeve on f.31). Old purple velvet (worn and rebacked).
PROVENANCE:
The Calendar, liturgical use and style are all consistent with the manuscript having been made in and for use in Paris. The feminine forms of the prayers on ff.19v-27 indicate that the original owner was a woman. The texts on f.1r-v are 15th-century additions; also during the 15th century an owner inserted pilgrim badges on f.72 and the final leaf, the latter shows the offset of a painted Holy Face; Benjamin Oliveira (1806-1865), prominent member of the Independent Liberal party, MP for Pontefract from 1852, and Fellow of the Royal Society: his bookplate inside upper cover; Roger Amory of Boston (1887-1960), founder of the Johann Fust Community Library in Boca Grande, Florida (his own books were bequeathed there but many were dispersed): pencil note inside upper cover that from his collection; acquired from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1976.
CONTENT:
Suffrage to St. Martin f.1; confession to the Virgin, Blessed Augustine and all saints f.1v; Calendar ff.2-13v; Gospel Extracts ff.14-18v; Obsecro te and O intemerata using feminine forms ff.19v-27; suffrages to Sts Katherine and Margaret ff. 28-29v; Office of the Virgin, use of Paris ff.30-72: matins f.30, lauds f.39, prime f.49, terce f.53v, sext f.57, none f.59v, vespers f.62v, compline f.66; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.73-88; Hours of the Cross ff.88v-91v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.92-95; Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, in French ff.95v-103v; Office of the Dead ff.104-118.
ILLUMINATION:
The richly colored miniatures are the work of the Luçon Master also known as the Master of Etienne Loypeau, named from the Pontifical-Missal commissioned by Loypeau, the Bishop of Luçon, for presentation to John, Duke of Berry, and given by Berry to his Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges between 1404 and 1407 (Paris, BnF, ms lat. 8886, E. Taburet-Delahaye and F. Avril, Paris 1400: les arts sous Charles VI, 2004, no. 171). The Pentecost in this Book of Hours, f.92, follows the compositional pattern seen also in the Duke's manuscript, f.284v. The Duke of Berry, employer of the de Limbourg brothers, is famed as one of the greatest patrons of illumination: the Luçon Master illustrated several of his manuscripts and provided miniatures for a devotional text for Berry's daughter, Marie (BnF, Ms fr. 926, see lot 31). The Master was also the chief illuminator of the famous Térence des ducs for the Dauphin Louis of Guyenne (Paris, Bibl. de l'Arsenal, Ms 664). Categorized as one of the three 'protagonistes les plus en vue de l'enluminure parisienne au début du XVe siècle' (Avril, Paris 1400, p.327), the Master is known for his refined technique and his patterned backgrounds, which contrast with the three-dimensionality of his elegantly draped figures. His deliberately restricted palette and soft modeling invite comparison with the ultimate luxury art form of enameling on gold that also flourished in Paris in this period of extraordinary artistic creativity.
The Luçon Master was active by 1401, when Colin le Besc, supplier of books to Berry and Charles VI's brother Louis of Orléans, dated a Book of Hours containing his work (Barcelona, Biblioteca Central ms 1850); his career has been traced until c.1415 through a series of Books of Hours, devotional and secular texts (see M. Meiss, French painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, the de Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 1974, pp.393-397; F. Avril, 'Un chef d'oeuvre inédit de l'enluminure parisienne autour de 1400', Art de l'enluminure, 8, 2004, pp.15-17). The present lot, previously unpublished, is very close to the 1401 Hours in the treatment of figures -- both unusually show heads in a total back view -- and settings where stylized plants or floor tiles meet gold diaper or, as on f.19v of the present lot, foliate designs on gold (see M. Meiss, French painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, the Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke, 1967, ills 334, 705, 810).
The stylized plants, along with shared designs, are found in a group of Books of Hours, including Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, Ms 491, Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery MS 231 and Harvard, Houghton Library MS Richardson 45 (R. Wieck, Late Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts 1350-1525 in the Houghton Library, 1983, no.3: 'after the Limbourg Brothers, the Luçon Master is considered one of the finest painters in France at the beginning of the fifteenth century'). The Master's style evolved, as seen in the Books of Hours in the Philadelphia Free Library, Widener 4 (J. Tanis ed., Leaves of Gold, Manuscript Illuminations from Philadelphia Collections, 2001, no.28), where the plants are more muted and the figures are moving towards the thinner, smaller-headed types seen in the Duke of Berry's Pontifical-Missal.
The present lot with its engaging miniatures demonstrates why the Luçon Master, one of the Duke of Berry's favored illuminators, attracted such prestigious commissions.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f.19v Virgin and Child; f.28 St. Catherine; f.29 St. Margaret; f.30 Annunciation; f.73 Christ enthroned; f.88v Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John; f.92 Pentecost; f.95v Virgin and Child; f.104 Vigils of the Dead.
[Paris, c.1400]
175 x 115mm. i + 117: 112, 26, 38, 42, 5-98, 103, 11- 158, 166, apparently COMPLETE, traces of catchwords, signature letters c-r in gutters of first 4 rectos of gatherings 2-16, pencil foliation 1-118 followed here, 15 lines of gothic bookhand in black ink between two verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in pink, text justification: 92 x 57mm, rubrics in red, one-line initials in burnished gold against grounds and infills of pink and blue with white penwork, two- to four-line initials in blue or pink with white monochrome patterning, grounds of burnished gold, ivy-leaf spray in infills and into the margin, eight four-line initials with three-sided borders with bar baguettes and ivy sprays, two with dragons in upper margin, NINE MINIATURES accompanied by full-page borders composed of baguettes of gold, pink and blue and ivy-leaf sprays (water-staining to lower outer corner of ff.1-9, occasional small surface losses of pigment with some retouching of the Christ child and the Virgin's mantle, robe and right hand on f.19v, Gabriel's sleeve on f.31). Old purple velvet (worn and rebacked).
PROVENANCE:
The Calendar, liturgical use and style are all consistent with the manuscript having been made in and for use in Paris. The feminine forms of the prayers on ff.19v-27 indicate that the original owner was a woman. The texts on f.1r-v are 15th-century additions; also during the 15th century an owner inserted pilgrim badges on f.72 and the final leaf, the latter shows the offset of a painted Holy Face; Benjamin Oliveira (1806-1865), prominent member of the Independent Liberal party, MP for Pontefract from 1852, and Fellow of the Royal Society: his bookplate inside upper cover; Roger Amory of Boston (1887-1960), founder of the Johann Fust Community Library in Boca Grande, Florida (his own books were bequeathed there but many were dispersed): pencil note inside upper cover that from his collection; acquired from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1976.
CONTENT:
Suffrage to St. Martin f.1; confession to the Virgin, Blessed Augustine and all saints f.1v; Calendar ff.2-13v; Gospel Extracts ff.14-18v; Obsecro te and O intemerata using feminine forms ff.19v-27; suffrages to Sts Katherine and Margaret ff. 28-29v; Office of the Virgin, use of Paris ff.30-72: matins f.30, lauds f.39, prime f.49, terce f.53v, sext f.57, none f.59v, vespers f.62v, compline f.66; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.73-88; Hours of the Cross ff.88v-91v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.92-95; Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, in French ff.95v-103v; Office of the Dead ff.104-118.
ILLUMINATION:
The richly colored miniatures are the work of the Luçon Master also known as the Master of Etienne Loypeau, named from the Pontifical-Missal commissioned by Loypeau, the Bishop of Luçon, for presentation to John, Duke of Berry, and given by Berry to his Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges between 1404 and 1407 (Paris, BnF, ms lat. 8886, E. Taburet-Delahaye and F. Avril, Paris 1400: les arts sous Charles VI, 2004, no. 171). The Pentecost in this Book of Hours, f.92, follows the compositional pattern seen also in the Duke's manuscript, f.284v. The Duke of Berry, employer of the de Limbourg brothers, is famed as one of the greatest patrons of illumination: the Luçon Master illustrated several of his manuscripts and provided miniatures for a devotional text for Berry's daughter, Marie (BnF, Ms fr. 926, see lot 31). The Master was also the chief illuminator of the famous Térence des ducs for the Dauphin Louis of Guyenne (Paris, Bibl. de l'Arsenal, Ms 664). Categorized as one of the three 'protagonistes les plus en vue de l'enluminure parisienne au début du XVe siècle' (Avril, Paris 1400, p.327), the Master is known for his refined technique and his patterned backgrounds, which contrast with the three-dimensionality of his elegantly draped figures. His deliberately restricted palette and soft modeling invite comparison with the ultimate luxury art form of enameling on gold that also flourished in Paris in this period of extraordinary artistic creativity.
The Luçon Master was active by 1401, when Colin le Besc, supplier of books to Berry and Charles VI's brother Louis of Orléans, dated a Book of Hours containing his work (Barcelona, Biblioteca Central ms 1850); his career has been traced until c.1415 through a series of Books of Hours, devotional and secular texts (see M. Meiss, French painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, the de Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 1974, pp.393-397; F. Avril, 'Un chef d'oeuvre inédit de l'enluminure parisienne autour de 1400', Art de l'enluminure, 8, 2004, pp.15-17). The present lot, previously unpublished, is very close to the 1401 Hours in the treatment of figures -- both unusually show heads in a total back view -- and settings where stylized plants or floor tiles meet gold diaper or, as on f.19v of the present lot, foliate designs on gold (see M. Meiss, French painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, the Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke, 1967, ills 334, 705, 810).
The stylized plants, along with shared designs, are found in a group of Books of Hours, including Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, Ms 491, Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery MS 231 and Harvard, Houghton Library MS Richardson 45 (R. Wieck, Late Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts 1350-1525 in the Houghton Library, 1983, no.3: 'after the Limbourg Brothers, the Luçon Master is considered one of the finest painters in France at the beginning of the fifteenth century'). The Master's style evolved, as seen in the Books of Hours in the Philadelphia Free Library, Widener 4 (J. Tanis ed., Leaves of Gold, Manuscript Illuminations from Philadelphia Collections, 2001, no.28), where the plants are more muted and the figures are moving towards the thinner, smaller-headed types seen in the Duke of Berry's Pontifical-Missal.
The present lot with its engaging miniatures demonstrates why the Luçon Master, one of the Duke of Berry's favored illuminators, attracted such prestigious commissions.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f.19v Virgin and Child; f.28 St. Catherine; f.29 St. Margaret; f.30 Annunciation; f.73 Christ enthroned; f.88v Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John; f.92 Pentecost; f.95v Virgin and Child; f.104 Vigils of the Dead.