Beschreibung:

TWO CALENDAR LEAVES WITH MINIATURES, from a Book of Hours, in French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Tours, c.1500] 183 x 125mm. Two leaves, each with two months, with the feasts written in two columns of 17 lines in gold, red and blue, above the text the occupation of the month and the sign of the zodiac within a double arcade, a three-sided border with acanthus, sprays of fruit and flowers and grotesques against grounds of liquid gold (slight loss of pigment to Feasting for January and slight rubbing to outer border of February). These leaves must have been part of an extremely opulent and lavishly decorated manuscript. The Calendar of a Book of Hours in Baltimore (Walters 227), attributed to a follower of Jean Bourdichon is illuminated in a similar, although less polished or ambitious manner. R. Wieck, The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life , London 1988, fig.23. with SLAUGHTERING A HOG, full-page miniature for December on a leaf from a Calendar of a Book of Hours, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?Tours, c.1520] 125 x 70mm. Recto with the feasts written in 13 lines in gold, red and blue as though on a screen suspended over the lower half of the scene visible through a double-storey grisaille architectural surround of socle, columns and architrave, the scene in semi-grisaille, a medallion with capricorn on the socle and a small putto seated on the entablature, both in liquid gold, on the verso , 20 lines of feasts and 5 lines of verse. Everything about the page layout, script and decoration of this exquisite little leaf suggests that it came from a Book of Hours produced by the 1520s Hours workshop. (3)