Lot 32
32
Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures (c.1460s-80s)
Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures (c.1460s-80s)
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This lot has been imported from outside of the UK … Read more The following two lots are two miniatures from a Book of Hours illuminated by the Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures (c.1460s-80s). The highly-decorative baldachin and delicate palette of soft greens, blues and rose, paralleled in a Book of Hours dated c.1480 in the Hague (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Ms 131.G.8), which also deploys the elaborate architectural canopies, often hovering, unsupported, over the scenes. The elegant, soft oval faces and carefully modelled figures, however, are closer to those in an earlier Book of Hours at Keble College, Oxford (Ms 77), characterised as being by 'one of the more articulate of the group'; see The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, Utrecht and New York, 1990, pp.194-7. The exceptional quality of the illumination may have been stimulated by an exceptional commission.
Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures (c.1460s-80s)

The Harrowing of Hell, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Delft, c.1470]

Details
Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures (c.1460s-80s)
The Harrowing of Hell, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Delft, c.1470]
A dramatic representation of the Harrowing of Hell by one of the Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures, with Christ reaching into a dramatic Hellmouth for Adam and Eve while John the Baptist, still clad in his camel skin, waits his turn.

178 x 122mm. An inserted miniature removed from a Book of Hours, without text but likely opening the Office of the Dead (some marginal staining, not affecting miniature, inner margin cropped close to frame). Window mount. Provenance: (1) Sold with six sister leaves at Christie’s, 9 July 2001, lot 5. (2) Sotheby's, 5 July 2005, lot 26.
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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