Anonymous Northern French artist - photo 1
Anonymous Northern French artist - photo 2
Anonymous Northern French artist - photo 3

Anonymous Northern French artist

Starting price
£ 18 000
Auction dateClassic
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 870864
Lot 42 | Anonymous Northern French artist
Anonymous Northern French artist

Book of Hours, use of St-Omer, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Northern France, c.1470s]

A Book of Hours painted in Northern France, showing the influence of Flanders; illuminated by the same artist who painted a Book of Hours for use of Arras, re-using certain of his compositions.



145 x 100mm. i + 158, complete, collation: 1-26, 34, 4-88, 9-106, 11-168, 173(i a cancelled blank), 188, 199 (ix an added singleton), 20-218, 227 (xiii a cancelled blank), 17 lines, ruled space: 90 x 60mm, rubrics in red, one-line initials alternating blue and liquid gold and two-line illuminated initials on red and blue grounds throughout, 12 three- to six-line illuminated initials, five large arch-topped miniatures above 5-line illuminated initials all within full borders of hairline tendrils supporting leaves, flowers and fruit interspersed with acanthus sprays, birds and occasional grotesques (the borders of the David in Prayer miniature repainted in the 16th century and the miniature retouched). 18th-century calf over thin pasteboards, gilt-tooled with foliage in spine compartments, metal clasps (slight cracking at edges and spine and a little scuffed).



Provenance:

(1) Our manuscript was likely written and illuminated in Northern France: the use of the Hours of the Virgin is for Saint-Omer and the sparsely-filled Calendar in French includes the feasts of saints venerated in the dioceses of Cambrai, Arras and Thérouanne. Notably, St Omer [Aumer] is the only saint whose feast day (9 September) is underlined in red; of local relevance are Sts Vaast (6 February), Rieul (30 March), Acaire (6 April), Medard (8 June), Eloi (25 June, in red, and 1 December), Bertin (16 July and 4 September), Denis (9 October, in red), and Maxime (19 and 27 November). The near-contemporary suffrages and devotions with which the manuscript continues on ff.114v-135v were presumably added by an early owner.



(2) Customised by a 16th-century owner, who re-arranged these Hours to incorporate additional gatherings with prayers in French, decorated with somewhat rustic illuminated initials.



(3) Later owners have further personalised the volume: a 17th-century ownership inscription in French (‘Ce livre apartient a […]’) on f.iv is partially concealed by a printed armorial device pasted on to the leaf, while a hand-coloured print of St Anne and the Virgin by Theodoor van Merlen (1609-1672) has been added to the front pastedown.



Contents: Calendar, in French ff.1-12; 16th-century added prayers in French ff.13v-15v; ruled blank f.16; Gospel extracts ff.17-21v; Hours of the Cross ff.22-24v; Hours of the Spirit ff.25-28v; Hours of the Virgin, use of St-Omer ff.29-67: matins f.29, lauds f.36v, prime f.44v, terce f.48v, sext f.52, none f.55, vespers f.58, compline f.63v; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.68-81v; Office of the Dead, with the first three lections only ff.82-103v; Obsecro te ff.104-107; O intemerata ff.107-109v; Salve regina ff.109v; Suffrages ff.110-114; further suffrages and devotions, in Latin and French, ff.114v-135v; 16th-century added prayers, in French ff.136-157v; ruled blank f.158.



Illumination:

While the use and Calendar of our manuscript point to a Northern French origin, the landscapes, interior architecture and figures in the miniatures draw us further east and contain elements of Netherlandish art. Our artist likely worked in France; he painted another Book of Hours for use of Arras (Les Enluminures, Picturing Piety: The Book of Hours, 2007, cat. 13, no 11), whose Annunciation miniature is clearly based on the same compositional model, featuring the same green tiled floor and red fleur-de-lis cloth of honour. His style, however, shows the distinct influence of Flanders; he was likely familiar with the oeuvre of Willem Vrelant and his workshop, who dominated the production of Books of Hours in Bruges in the third decade of the 15th century: Vrelant’s widely-emulated style is best identified here in the strong palette with comparatively little modelling. The rather sparse borders of blue and gold acanthus sprays and flowers on plain vellum with birds at mid-height – which our manuscript shares with her sister Hours for use of Arras – were popularised in Ghent in the 1470s.



The subjects of the large miniatures are as follows: Crucifixion f.22; Pentecost f.25; Annunciation f.29; David in Prayer f.68; Raising of Lazarus f.82.



Christie's is grateful for the advice of Dominique Vanwijnsberghe in the cataloguing of this lot.





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