Beschreibung:

THE NATIVITY, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Delft, c.1470].
THE NATIVITY, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Delft, c.1470]. 173 x 115mm. An inserted miniature removed from a Book of Hours, without text but likely opening Prime in the Hours of the Virgin (occasional pigment losses and a few scattered pinholes). Provenance: sold with six sister leaves Christie’s, 9 July 2001, lot 5. A charming staging of the Nativity by one of the Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures, the half-lengths after which they are named replaced here by a full-length angel joining the adoration of the Christ Child. The highly-decorative baldachin and delicate palette of soft greens, blues and rose, paralleled in a Book of Hours dated c.1480 in the Hague (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Ms 131.G.8), are combined with the elegant oval faces, soft of feature, and bushy-haired angels close to those in a Nativity in a Book of Hours from 1450 at Keble College, Oxford (Ms 77); see The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting , Utrecht and New York, 1990, pp.194-7. In fact, the present leaf derives from the same pattern as the Keble Hours – with Joseph holding a large candle that will be dimmed by the divine light of the Christ Child. The notable quality and thoughtfully-represented subject matter suggest an origin in a particularly fine Book of Hours.