Beschreibung:

THE LADY OF MALOHAUT AND HER COUSIN VISIT LANCELOT IN PRISON, WOUNDED AFTER HIS BATTLE WITH KING 'PREMIER CONQUIS', miniature cut from the Livre du Lancelot del Lac , in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1440] An evocative miniature from the famous Arthurian romance Livre du Lancelot del Lac illuminated by the Dunois Master. 90 x 90mm. Pasted down on card, mounted and framed (tiny marginal losses to the gilding). The scene corresponds to III, 221:14 in H.O. Summer's edition of the text, The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances , 1911. Provenance : (1) The Livre du Lancelot del Lac and the Roman de Guiron le Courtois (BnF mss. fr. 356-7) may well be the two manuscripts for which Prigent de Coëtivy, admiral of France, paid Jean Haincelin in 1444, a crucial piece of evidence to the argument identifying the Bedford Master with Haincelin de Haguenau, perhaps the father of Jean Haincelin, the Dunois Master. The Lancelot was dismembered by the 16th century. (2) Joachim Napoléon, Prince Murat (1835-1932). (3) W.R. Jeudwine, Alpine Club Gallery, London, 1962, no 3. Illumination : The Dunois Master was the assistant of the Bedford Master and then his successor as the dominant figure in Parisian illumination from about 1435. His soft style derives from that of the Bedford Master and he also inherited the older Master's stock of compositional patterns. He built on this legacy, showing great compositional inventiveness in both secular manuscripts and devotional books, like the Hours of the Count of Dunois from which he was named (London, BL. Ms Yates Thompson 3). The Dunois Master's assured painterly technique and narrative skills have created an entrancing epitome of the chivalric ideals at the heart of French court culture.