THE NATIVITY, miniature from a Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1407] A sensitive and serene composition of the Nativity, revealing the influence of two of the pillars of early 15th-century Parisian illumination: the Mazarine Master and the Egerton Master. c.170 x 115mm. The miniature opening Prime of the Hours of the Virgin, reverse with 18 lines of text with partial borders, rubrics in red, three small illuminated initials (some smudging to the borders and the text, slight loss of pigment to the Virgin's robe). Double-sided gilt frame. Provenance : (1) The parent manuscript from which the present miniature comes was made for a Breton monk in or slightly before 1407: the calendar included Sts Corentinus and Ives, both Breton saints, and depicted a monk adoring the Virgin in one of the miniatures. The calendar placed the date of Easter on 27 March, and with the other moveable feasts this means that the year is 1407 or 1418, and the style of the miniatures and borders indicates the earlier date. (2) Renatus Berziel: inscriptions on ff.1, 33, 33v of the parent manuscript in brown ink in a 16th-century cursive script, with a date of 21 March 1502 on f.34. (3) Bruce Ferrini, A selection of medieval illuminated manuscripts and single leaves , cat. 2 (1989), no 15; the present miniature f.72v. Subsequently broken up. (4) Marc Antoine du Ry, 2002. The style of illumination reveals the influence of two of the principal workshops operating in Paris at the turn of the 15th century: that of the Mazarine Master, and that of the Egerton Master. The Mazarine Master, named from the Book of Hours in the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris, ms 469, was one of the most innovative illuminators active in Paris in the first decades of the 15th century. Some of his characteristic stylistic traits are evident in the serene composition of the Nativity scene, with the figures placed against a decorative diapered background. The Mazarine Master's backgrounds may have developed in conjunction with the Egerton Master, with whom he collaborated on the eponymous Book of Hours, BL, Egerton ms 1070, which came to be owned by René of Anjou (see E. Taburet-Delahaye and F. Avril, Paris 1400, les arts sous Charles VI , 2004). The Egerton Master's influence seems particularly prevalent in the present miniature.
THE NATIVITY, miniature from a Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1407] A sensitive and serene composition of the Nativity, revealing the influence of two of the pillars of early 15th-century Parisian illumination: the Mazarine Master and the Egerton Master. c.170 x 115mm. The miniature opening Prime of the Hours of the Virgin, reverse with 18 lines of text with partial borders, rubrics in red, three small illuminated initials (some smudging to the borders and the text, slight loss of pigment to the Virgin's robe). Double-sided gilt frame. Provenance : (1) The parent manuscript from which the present miniature comes was made for a Breton monk in or slightly before 1407: the calendar included Sts Corentinus and Ives, both Breton saints, and depicted a monk adoring the Virgin in one of the miniatures. The calendar placed the date of Easter on 27 March, and with the other moveable feasts this means that the year is 1407 or 1418, and the style of the miniatures and borders indicates the earlier date. (2) Renatus Berziel: inscriptions on ff.1, 33, 33v of the parent manuscript in brown ink in a 16th-century cursive script, with a date of 21 March 1502 on f.34. (3) Bruce Ferrini, A selection of medieval illuminated manuscripts and single leaves , cat. 2 (1989), no 15; the present miniature f.72v. Subsequently broken up. (4) Marc Antoine du Ry, 2002. The style of illumination reveals the influence of two of the principal workshops operating in Paris at the turn of the 15th century: that of the Mazarine Master, and that of the Egerton Master. The Mazarine Master, named from the Book of Hours in the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris, ms 469, was one of the most innovative illuminators active in Paris in the first decades of the 15th century. Some of his characteristic stylistic traits are evident in the serene composition of the Nativity scene, with the figures placed against a decorative diapered background. The Mazarine Master's backgrounds may have developed in conjunction with the Egerton Master, with whom he collaborated on the eponymous Book of Hours, BL, Egerton ms 1070, which came to be owned by René of Anjou (see E. Taburet-Delahaye and F. Avril, Paris 1400, les arts sous Charles VI , 2004). The Egerton Master's influence seems particularly prevalent in the present miniature.
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