Beschreibung:

Master of the Missal of Jean de Foix (Liénard de Lachieze) and the 'Maître à la devise "Tout ce change"' Nativity, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Toulouse, c.1490s] An exceptional example of Toulouse book painting, the product of a fruitful and inventive collaboration between two of the major Toulouse illuminators at the turn of the 16th century. 181 x 132mm. The miniature opening Prime in the Hours of the Virgin, within a full border with banderoles 'TOUT CE CHANGE', 'QUI FECIT CELUM ET TERRAM CREAVIT OMNIA SIMUL' and 'TIMENTIBUS DEUM NICHIL DEEST', reverse with 20 lines of text, ruled space: 120 x 80mm, 7 illuminated initials. Mounted. Provenance: Sotheby's, 20 June 1995, lot 16. The illuminator of the miniature is the Master of the Missal of Jean de Foix, the artist responsible for one of the most remarkable examples of Toulouse manuscript illumination, the Missal executed in 1492 for Jean de Foix, bishop of Comminges (1466-1501) (Paris, BnF, Latin 16827), recently identified by Aurélia Cohendy as Liénard de Lachieze (see A. Cohendy, 'Le maître du Missel de Jean de Foix identifié : Liénard de Lachieze et l’enluminure à Toulouse à la fin du XVe siècle', Revue de l'art, June 2017, no 196, pp.7-18). On this imposing volume the Master collaborates with another artist who specialises in inventive and unique borders inhabited by fantastical birds and beasts and moralising banderoles, whom François Avril has dubbed the 'Maître à la devise "Tout ce change"', and whose hand we see in the borders of the present miniature (on this Master, and this collaboration, see F. Avril, 'A la découverte de deux artistes toulousains, le "maître aux banderoles" et Pèlerin Frison', Livre d'heures enluminé par Pèlerin Frison, peintre des Capitouls dans les années 1500, 2003, pp.51-74; the present leaf described and illustrated on p.62). The two artists also collaborated on a multi-volume Latin Bible commissioned by Jean de Foix (Paris, BnF, N.a.lat.3192). The 'Maître à la devise "Tout ce change"' also worked on the so-called Hours of Louis d’Orléans, St Petersburg, National Library of Russia, ms. Lat. O.v.I., n° 126 and a Book of Hours for the use of Rome, sold at Christie's on 23 June 1993, lot 29, now Toulouse, BM, ms. 2842. Avril notes that the scribe of the present leaf is the same as that of another Toulouse Hours, also illuminated by the Master of the Missal of Jean de Foix, from the collection of Lord Aldenham, sold at Sotheby's, 12 December 1967, lot 67.