Beschreibung:

THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, historiated initial A, cut from a Choirbook on vellum [Lombardy, c.1450] approx. 108 x 97mm. Staves of green patterned with yellow mock-kufic lettering, with the Virgin at half-length with the Child in a glory of gold rays on a red ground (slightly rubbed and some oxidisation). Loose in mount. The delicate figures with their crisply modelled drapery, the letter form and the clear colours are typical of the Master of the Franciscan Breviary, named from a manuscript in Bologna (Bibl. univ. Ms 337), datable to 1446. It can be compared, for example, with his work in a Gradual in Washington (Library of Congress, Ms 25, see A. Melograni, 'Miniature inedite del Quattrocento lombardo nelle collezioni americane', Storia dell'Arte , 1995, pp.8-17). This initial may come from one of the dismembered choirbooks from the magnificent series made for Cardinal Bessarion and eventually given by him to the Convent of the Observant Franciscans at Cesena, which was founded in 1458 (see P. Lucchi ed., I Corali miniati del Quattrocento nella Biblioteca Malatestiana , 1989, pp.19-36, 96-114. with FUNERAL SERVICE, miniature opening the Office of the Dead, on a leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin on vellum [northern France, c.1440] 194 x 146mm. 15 lines written in a gothic bookhand, justification: 113 x 83mm, one-line initials alternately in blue flourished with red and in burnished gold flourished with blue, line endings in the same colours, one large initial in burnished gold with blue infill on a pink ground patterned with white, leading to a burnished gold bar on two sides of A FULL BORDER of burnished gold leaves and disks on hairline tendrils between acanthus and flower sprays in blue, green and red, around A LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURE, framed in burnished gold, showing the Office of the Dead being recited (slightly rubbed). Loose in mount. Stylistically this handsome leaf relates to manuscripts produced in Amiens; it was probably painted around 1440. with CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS, miniature opening matins of the Hours of the Cross, on a leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin on vellum [Rouen, c.1500] 169 x 115mm. 27 lines written in a lettre bâtarde , justification: 133 x 80mm, one-line initials and line-ending in liquid gold on maroon grounds, two- and three-line initials with staves of pink, blue and white on grounds of liquid gold with flower stem infills, A FULL BORDER with divided fields of grey and white acanthus on deep or lighter pink grounds and of naturalistic fruit and flower sprays on grounds of liquid gold around A LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURE of Christ carrying the Cross in front of a frieze of soldiers, watched by the Virgin, St John and other followers before the gates of Jerusalem to the right, a bent foreground figure to the left with LAURET DE MA/ONO DIE MEN AC (?) inscribed on his robe (trimmed to edge of border, border worn, horizontal crease, staining to verso from former mount). Christ's grey robe, modelled in pink and gold, is set against the strong blues and accents of red in the crowd. The linear detailing and hatched modelling suggest that the manuscript was made in Rouen towards 1500. (3)