Beschreibung:

Cato the Elder lecturing to Scipio Africanus and Gaius Laelius Sapiens, large miniature from an illuminated manuscript of Cicero, De Senectute, in the French translation of Laurent de Premierfait, on parchment [Central France (perhaps Nantes or Tours), third quarter of the fifteenth century]cutting from the top half of a leaf, with a large and wide arch-topped miniature enclosing Cato the Elder as an old man, seated within a detailed carved wooden interior, and gesturing to Scipio Africanus and Gaius Laelius Sapiens, all within a richly carved gothic interior, the doorway and open window showing a background with a rocky outcrop touched in liquid gold and a detailed ship at sail, border on two sides of coloured acanthus leaves and foliage, enclosing two men (one in a coif, another in a golden hat) engaged in debate, some slight water damage causing cockling to left hand border, small area of discolouration and flaking from robes and face of central figure, else good condition, laid down on wooden board, but lifting at bottom corner to reveal lines of French text, “no.468” on back of board in later hand, carved nineteenth-century gilt frame, 220mm. by 180mm.Offered in Sotheby’s, 2 July 2013, lot 9 (alongside 7 other miniatures from the same parent manuscript, there as individual lots), and sold immediately after sale to the present owner. Another miniature from this series reappeared in our rooms, 9 December 2015, lot 62.This cutting is from a large manuscript of the works of Cicero, translated into French by the poet and humanist Laurent de Premierfait (c. 1380-1418) in 1406. Its subject is entirely secular in content, and of enormous rarity. The artist was a follower of Jean Fouquet (1420-81), the preeminent French painter of the fifteenth century and peintre du roy to King Louis XI. The parent manuscript, with its miniatures in the style prevalent at court in the second half of the fifteenth century, may well have been commissioned by a member of the royal court.