Beschreibung:

large miniature from an illuminated Book of Hours, in Dutch, on parchment [Netherlands, c.1450] Single leaf, with a full-page miniature with the Virgin seated to the left on a large throne covered in red and beige cloth embroidered with gold, presenting the Child who reaches forward to bless the nearest king, two others to the right, within frame of concentric thin gold and coloured bars, full border of sprays of coloured acanthus leaves and other foliage terminating in gold leaves and flowers and realistic coloured flowerheads, some leaves and flowers in grey and perhaps once silver, 18 lines in Dutch on reverse with small initials in red or blue, red rubrics, single capital touched in red, occasional small cracks or scuffs, edges trimmed and borders thumbed in places, else good condition, 120mm. by 82mm., framed This leaf comes from an appealing Dutch manuscript with an extensive cycle of miniatures. This one was sold in Sotheby’s, 10 December 1973, lot 18 (with other leaves as lots 16-17 and 19-23), noting there the artist’s “delicate modelling of his faces”. Further leaves appeared in Maggs, Bulletin 8 (June 1974), nos.15 and 16 (illustrated pp.22-23), and Sotheby’s, 13 December 1976, lots 26-30. The elongated bodies of the figures here, as well as their serene faces point towards the work of the Master of the Delft Half-Length Figures (see J. Marrow, The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 1990, p.194).