Anonymous Bourges or Poitiers artist
Anonymous Bourges or Poitiers artist
The Levayer de Faverolles Hours, use of Poitiers, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Poitiers or Bourges?, c.1500]
A highly individual deluxe Book of Hours, filled with lively and engaging compositions, the text entirely written in bright blue ink.
174 x 120 mm. i + 96 + i leaves: 112, 27 (of 8, lacking i), 38, 47 (of 8, lacking iii), 5-108, 114, 128, 132, modern foliation 1-97 (skipping a leaf after 94), 21 lines written in blue ink, ruled space: c.90 x 60 mm, rubrics in red, each page with initials in different sizes in gold on blue or purple, Calendar illustrated with 12 small roundels in camaïeu d'or on a blue grounds with symbols of the zodiac and 12 miniatures with occupations of the month, 19 full-page miniatures divided into two registers (lacking two leaves with miniatures after ff.12 and 29, minor pigment losses to a few miniatures, some cockling to vellum). Old blue velvet over boards (rubbed).
Provenance: (1) The Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead are for the unusual use of Poitiers, and both feminine and masculine forms are used in the text. The text of the manuscript is entirely written in bright blue ink, a highly individual (and laborious) feature that must have been done at the commissioner’s request. (2) Levayer de Faverolles family: 18th?-century inscription on opening flyleaf. This is possibly Jean-Michel-Christophe Levayer (or Le Vayer) de Faverolles, seigneur de Vandeuvre, La Davière and Courcemont, ‘grand-sénéchal du Maine’ in 1789 (see Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Touraine, X, 1858, p.78). The family was one of the most prominent in the Maine region of France, producing several leading jurists throughout the the 16th-18th centuries. (3) Prayer in French added on one of the flyleaves in the 20th century.
Content: Calendar ff.1-12v; Gospel extracts ff.13-22v; blank f.23; Hours of the Virgin, use of Poitiers, with Hours of the Cross and Holy Ghost interspersed ff.24-52: matins f.24, lauds f.30, short Hours of the Cross f.36, short Hours of the Holy Ghost f.37, prime f.38, terce f.42v, sext f.44, none f.46v, vespers f.49, compline f.52; blank f.54v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.55-65v; Office of the Dead, use of Poitiers, ff.66-82; Obsecro te ff.82v-84v; Office of the Immaculate Conception ff.85-88v; Hours of St Catherine ff.89-91v; Hours of St Barbara ff.92-93v; suffrage to St James ff.94-94v; added prayer in French f.95v.
Illumination: The highly individual and engaging compositions are the work of an anonymous artist deeply influenced by models from Paris, but particularly rooted – in the richness of decoration of the miniatures – in Bourges conventions, as developed by Jean Colombe (doc. 1463-1493), the illuminator chosen by Charles I Duke of Savoy to complete the Très riches heures of the Duke of Berry. The form of page layout that is used throughout these Hours is an adoption from Colombe and Jean Fouquet: the text partitions the painted scenes and is supported by angels in the lower panel; we find a similar conceit in a Book of Hours in the Bibliothèque Nationale, N.a. Lat. 3181 (see Avril and Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1993, no 183, p.334), and another Hours sold at Christie’s on 2 June 1999, lot 38, both attributable to Jean Colombe and workshop. The miniature depicting the Betrayal and Arrest of Christ is also reminiscent of the same subject in the Hours of Jules II, painted by the Colombe workshop (Chantilly, Musée Condé, 0078).
Our artist has a penchant for globular trees, painted in hues of bluish-green and dotted in gold, steeply receding horizons punctuated by rugged rock formations, and markedly gradated skies. There are strong similarities with the work of the artist responsible for the suffrage miniatures (especially those of Sts Catherine and Barbara) in a Bourges Book of Hours in Philadelphia (Free Library, ms Lewis E 86), whose principal hand has been linked to that of the Monypenny Master (active also in the Almanac Hours, sold at Christie’s, 29 July 2020, lot 17). We see similar straight-nosed figures distinguished by the incisive vertical brushstrokes of their flesh modelling and a cursory way of painting distant prospects of landscapes in shades of pale blue, highlighted with gold.
The subjects of the Calendar miniatures are as follows: Man dining before an open fireplace f.1; Man warming his hands as a servant brings firewood f.2; Farmer pruning vines f.3; Young lover picking flowers f.4; Couple horse-riding f.5; Scything grass for hay f.6; Harvesting wheat f.7; Threshing grain f.8; Making wine f.9; Collecting acorns to feed the pigs f.10; Slaughtering a pig f.11; Baking bread in an over f.12.
The subjects of the full-page miniatures are as follows: St Luke painting the Virgin f.13v; St Mark sharpening his pen f.15; Betrayal of Christ, healing of Malchus’ ear f.17; Annunciation f.24; Crucifixion f.36; Pentecost f.37; Nativity f.38; Annunciation to the Shepherds f.41v; Adoration of the Magi f.44; Presentation in the Temple f.46v; Flight into Egypt, with Mary riding the donkey and Joseph carrying the Child f.49; Coronation of the Virgin f.52; David in prayer f.56; Job on the dung heap f.66; Virgin and Child adored by angels f.82v; Meeting at the Golden Gate f.85; St Catherine f.89; St Barbara f.92; St James f.94.
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Anonymous Bourges or Poitiers artist
The Levayer de Faverolles Hours, use of Poitiers, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Poitiers or Bourges?, c.1500]
A highly individual deluxe Book of Hours, filled with lively and engaging compositions, the text entirely written in bright blue ink.
174 x 120 mm. i + 96 + i leaves: 112, 27 (of 8, lacking i), 38, 47 (of 8, lacking iii), 5-108, 114, 128, 132, modern foliation 1-97 (skipping a leaf after 94), 21 lines written in blue ink, ruled space: c.90 x 60 mm, rubrics in red, each page with initials in different sizes in gold on blue or purple, Calendar illustrated with 12 small roundels in camaïeu d'or on a blue grounds with symbols of the zodiac and 12 miniatures with occupations of the month, 19 full-page miniatures divided into two registers (lacking two leaves with miniatures after ff.12 and 29, minor pigment losses to a few miniatures, some cockling to vellum). Old blue velvet over boards (rubbed).
Provenance: (1) The Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead are for the unusual use of Poitiers, and both feminine and masculine forms are used in the text. The text of the manuscript is entirely written in bright blue ink, a highly individual (and laborious) feature that must have been done at the commissioner’s request. (2) Levayer de Faverolles family: 18th?-century inscription on opening flyleaf. This is possibly Jean-Michel-Christophe Levayer (or Le Vayer) de Faverolles, seigneur de Vandeuvre, La Davière and Courcemont, ‘grand-sénéchal du Maine’ in 1789 (see Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Touraine, X, 1858, p.78). The family was one of the most prominent in the Maine region of France, producing several leading jurists throughout the the 16th-18th centuries. (3) Prayer in French added on one of the flyleaves in the 20th century.
Content: Calendar ff.1-12v; Gospel extracts ff.13-22v; blank f.23; Hours of the Virgin, use of Poitiers, with Hours of the Cross and Holy Ghost interspersed ff.24-52: matins f.24, lauds f.30, short Hours of the Cross f.36, short Hours of the Holy Ghost f.37, prime f.38, terce f.42v, sext f.44, none f.46v, vespers f.49, compline f.52; blank f.54v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.55-65v; Office of the Dead, use of Poitiers, ff.66-82; Obsecro te ff.82v-84v; Office of the Immaculate Conception ff.85-88v; Hours of St Catherine ff.89-91v; Hours of St Barbara ff.92-93v; suffrage to St James ff.94-94v; added prayer in French f.95v.
Illumination: The highly individual and engaging compositions are the work of an anonymous artist deeply influenced by models from Paris, but particularly rooted – in the richness of decoration of the miniatures – in Bourges conventions, as developed by Jean Colombe (doc. 1463-1493), the illuminator chosen by Charles I Duke of Savoy to complete the Très riches heures of the Duke of Berry. The form of page layout that is used throughout these Hours is an adoption from Colombe and Jean Fouquet: the text partitions the painted scenes and is supported by angels in the lower panel; we find a similar conceit in a Book of Hours in the Bibliothèque Nationale, N.a. Lat. 3181 (see Avril and Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1993, no 183, p.334), and another Hours sold at Christie’s on 2 June 1999, lot 38, both attributable to Jean Colombe and workshop. The miniature depicting the Betrayal and Arrest of Christ is also reminiscent of the same subject in the Hours of Jules II, painted by the Colombe workshop (Chantilly, Musée Condé, 0078).
Our artist has a penchant for globular trees, painted in hues of bluish-green and dotted in gold, steeply receding horizons punctuated by rugged rock formations, and markedly gradated skies. There are strong similarities with the work of the artist responsible for the suffrage miniatures (especially those of Sts Catherine and Barbara) in a Bourges Book of Hours in Philadelphia (Free Library, ms Lewis E 86), whose principal hand has been linked to that of the Monypenny Master (active also in the Almanac Hours, sold at Christie’s, 29 July 2020, lot 17). We see similar straight-nosed figures distinguished by the incisive vertical brushstrokes of their flesh modelling and a cursory way of painting distant prospects of landscapes in shades of pale blue, highlighted with gold.
The subjects of the Calendar miniatures are as follows: Man dining before an open fireplace f.1; Man warming his hands as a servant brings firewood f.2; Farmer pruning vines f.3; Young lover picking flowers f.4; Couple horse-riding f.5; Scything grass for hay f.6; Harvesting wheat f.7; Threshing grain f.8; Making wine f.9; Collecting acorns to feed the pigs f.10; Slaughtering a pig f.11; Baking bread in an over f.12.
The subjects of the full-page miniatures are as follows: St Luke painting the Virgin f.13v; St Mark sharpening his pen f.15; Betrayal of Christ, healing of Malchus’ ear f.17; Annunciation f.24; Crucifixion f.36; Pentecost f.37; Nativity f.38; Annunciation to the Shepherds f.41v; Adoration of the Magi f.44; Presentation in the Temple f.46v; Flight into Egypt, with Mary riding the donkey and Joseph carrying the Child f.49; Coronation of the Virgin f.52; David in prayer f.56; Job on the dung heap f.66; Virgin and Child adored by angels f.82v; Meeting at the Golden Gate f.85; St Catherine f.89; St Barbara f.92; St James f.94.
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