St Stephen Master (fl1440-60) - photo 1
St Stephen Master (fl1440-60) - photo 2

St Stephen Master (fl1440-60)

Starting price
£ 8 000
Auction dateClassic
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
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ID 470128
Lot 27 | St Stephen Master (fl1440-60)
St Stephen Master (fl.1440-60)

Flight into Egypt, Rouen c.1450-60

FLIGHT INTO EGYPT, miniature on a leaf cut from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Rouen, c.1450-60]



An splendid miniature illuminated by the St Stephen Master, an illuminator whose style was formed in the milieu of the Bedford and Dunois Masters.



193 x 137mm. The Flight into Egypt opening vespers in the Hours of the Virgin. Reverse with 16 lines of text and 6 illuminated initials and line fillers within a full border, ruled space: 100 x 55mm, modern pencil foliation in lower corners '62' (lower right corner a little rubbed). Mounted. Provenance: This miniature and the following come from an incomplete Book of Hours for the use of Rouen (Sotheby's, 5 December 2000, lot 62). The pencil foliation was done when the manuscript was already fragmentary and misbound. Four single text leaves and two bifolia were sold at Christie's, 11 July 2002, lot 5.



Illumination: The Flight into Egypt is a striking work by the artist of the Invention of St Stephen in the Salisbury Breviary (Paris, BnF, lat.17294, f.529v), one of the four manuscripts owned or commissioned by John, Duke of Bedford, English Regent in France from 1423, from which the Bedford Master takes his name. Work continued on the Breviary after the Duke's death in 1436, with only this one large miniature of St Stephen not in the related styles of the Bedford and Dunois Masters. Like the Master of the Munich Golden Legend, with whom he sometimes collaborated, the St Stephen Master adopted many of the compositions of the Bedford and Dunois Masters while retaining his own distinctive and accomplished style (see C. Reynolds, 'The Workshop of the Master of the Duke of Bedford: Definitions and Identities', in Patrons, Authors, and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris arond 1400, 2006, pp.437-72). The attendant in the present miniature is a testament to this close collaboration: the same figure can be found in the Dunois Hours (where there are added miniatures in the St Stephen style), which the Dunois Master in turn borrowed from the Presentation in the Temple in the Très Riches Heures.



A comparable scene to our Flight can be found in one of the roundels of the Salisbury Breviary itself, f. 115v. Unlike the Dunois Master, with his deliberately evident brushstrokes, the St Stephen painter achieves a precise and even finish, with smooth contours neatly defining slightly narrow-headed figures, while a fine line gives features to the pale faces and emphasises the hooded eyes.

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