Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, last decade of the 15th century] A very fine Book of Hours, commissioned from the innovative workshop at the forefront of Parisian manuscript illumination and decorative art at the end of the 15 th century, that of the Master of the Apocalypse Rose of the Sainte-Chapelle (fl. c.1480-1510). Also known as the Master of the Très Petites Heures d’Anne de Bretagne for the Hours he painted around 1498 for Anne, wife of Charles VIII and Queen Consort of France, the output of his workshop was not restricted to splendid illuminated manuscripts: the master designed panel and wall paintings, tapestries, and stained glass, as well as widely reproduced woodcuts for the printed Books of Hours that became hugely fashionable at the end of the century. 144 x 95mm. iii + 163 + iii, lacking one leaf, some catchwords surviving, 18 lines, ruled space: 81 x 42mm. Four full-page bipartite miniatures, eight border miniatures, panel borders of bisecting foliage and acanthus on the majority of the pages, illuminated initials throughout. Modern red velvet with metal edges and clasps (lacking one clasp). Provenance : Perhaps commissioned for a member of the Charvet family of Lorraine: the coat of arms on f.19 most closely resemble theirs – while a note in a 16th-century French hand suggests that the present manuscript was made for a ‘Jehann ?Bemoynin, grandmother of Anne le conte ?mavure’. Content: Calendar ff.1-12; Gospel extracts ff.13-18; Office of the Virgin, with Hours of the Cross and the Holy Spirit intermixed ff.19-78; Penitential Psalms ff.79-90; Litany ff.90v-96; Office of the Dead (lacking the final leaf) ff.97-128; Gospel sequence of the Passion according to John ff.129-139; Suffrages ff.139v-158; O intemerata ff.159-162; ruled blank with ownership ascription f.163v. The subject of the miniatures are as follows: Annunciation, above the coat of arms of the ?Charvet family f.19; David kneels before Samuel, David and Goliath f.79; Raising of Lazarus, Death’s arrow f.97; Agony in the Garden, Arrest of Christ f.129. The small miniatures are on ff.13; 14v; 16; 17v; 50v; 51v; 57v; and 159. The present manuscript was illuminated in the workshop of the Master of the Apocalypse Rose of the Sainte-Chapelle (fl. c.1480-1510), named for the designs he provided for the famous stained-glasswork for the royal chapel at the behest by Charles VIII. His most famed manuscript commission was the splendid Book of Hours produced around 1498 for Charles’ spouse, Anne of Brittany – now held in Paris (BnF, nouv. acq. lat. 3120) – but his workshop also worked across other media, as with that of his immediate predecessor, the Coëtivy Master. As well as tapestry – another of his names is the Master of the Hunt of the Unicorn, for the tapestries now at the Cloisters in New York that bear his designs – the Master played a central role in the production of printed Books of Hours which flourished in Paris after 1480: he provided many compositions to illustrate these editions, where much stylistic interchange can be observed with his relatively small oeuvre of manuscripts. Not only do his stocky figures and careful construction of space identify the present manuscript as emanating from his workshop, the unusual arched miniatures inserted into the borders here reappear in certain of his designs for printed Hours.