Anonymous Hainaut-Cambrai or Bruges artist

Anonymous Hainaut-Cambrai or Bruges artist
Book of Hours, use of Cambrai, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, c.1460]
An impressively sized Book of Hours from the Bute Collection: made for a female owner, whose soul is carried to heaven in one of sixteen engaging miniatures by an illuminator with a delightful sense of colour and pattern.

201 x 138mm. iv + 328 + iv, complete, collation: 14, 29(of 8 + i), 3-248, 254, 26-418, 427(of 8, viii cancelled blank), catchwords, 12 lines, ruled space: 98 x 65mm, rubrics in red, line endings and one-line initials in gold on pink and blue grounds, two-line initials leading to partial borders of hairline tendrils with gold leaves and part coloured fleurons, 16 large miniatures above large initials with full borders (instances of very small paint losses or very slight wear). 19th-century red morocco gilt tooled with leaves and crosses, gilt endpapers, stamp of J. Leighton, Brewer Street. Leather covered metal slipcase.

Provenance: (1) The liturgical use is of Cambrai, the language and the choice of saints in Calendar and Litany indicating the southern francophone part of the diocese; the book has characteristics of Hainaut production. The first owner was female – the prayer on f.17 is in the feminine – and had a particular devotion to St Cornelius, whose relics were at Ninove and who was specially revered at Ronse (Renaix) on the linguistic border. (2) John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute (1933-1993), Ms 94, pencilled shelfmark on verso of first endleaf; Sotheby’s The Bute Collection of forty-two Illuminated Manuscripts and Miniatures, 13 June 1983, lot 16.

Content: Calendar ff.1v-13; prayers opening with the Pater noster ff.14-19; opening of St John’s Gospel ff.20-22v; further devotions, including on f.28 the Salve regina, ff.23-31; memorials, opening with St Cornelius, ff.31v-37v; Office of the Virgin, use of Cambrai, ff.38-138; Hours of the Cross ff.130-154v; Hours of the Holy Ghost ff.147-168v; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.161-193v; Office of the Dead, use of Cambrai, ff.194-279; Commendation of souls ff.278v-326; ruled blanks ff.326v-328v. The opening texts are almost identical to those in a longer sequence in a Book of Hours for the Use of Cambrai in the Walters Art Museum, ms W.193.

Illumination: Large books of hours with generous margins seem to have been favoured in the Cambrai diocese. The spacious layout counterpoints the richly coloured and gilded borders with their inventive grotesques and the lively miniatures, full of incident, pattern and interest. For narrative subjects, like the Presentation in the Temple and the Massacre of the Innocents, the figures are kept small to populate the varied settings with a lavish cast of characters. Like the landscapes, with flowering fields and bird filled skies, the interiors are pleasingly detailed to enhance the neat figures, all precisely delineated and meticulously modelled. In style, the miniatures relate to Bruges illumination of c.1460. The Trinity with the Holy Ghost as a winged man, f.14, follows a distinctive pattern used there in the 1450s by Petrus Christus and the Master of Jean Chevrot, both inspired by Jan van Eyck (Brussels, KBR ms IV 95 f.155v; Morgan Library and Museum M.421, f.15v; J. Paul Getty Museum, ms Ludwig IX 7, f.25v). The tiled floors are also Eyckian in origin, while the rich colouring and complex architecture seem indebted to Willem Vrelant, a dominant figure in Bruges illumination from the 1450s until his death in 1481. The borders, however, are not typical of Bruges: their intriguing grotesques are not by the miniature hand and seem closer to the less refined painting found in other manuscripts for the use of Cambrai, like the historiated initials of W.193. This Book of Hours may be a product of the Hainaut-Cambrai area that was sent to Bruges for the miniatures to be painted; alternatively the miniatures were painted locally by an artist trained in Bruges. However achieved, the result is one of enduring appeal. Christie’s is grateful to Dominique Vanwijnsberghe for his assistance with this lot.

The subjects of the miniatures are as follows: Trinity f.14; Virgin and Child f.28; St Cornelius f.31v; Annunciation f.38; Visitation f.55; Nativity f.74v; Annunciation to the Shepherds f.85; Adoration of the Magi f.93; Presentation in the Temple f.100v; Massacre of the Innocents f.108; Flight into Egypt f.122; Crucifixion f.131; Pentecost f.147; David f.161; Raising of Lazarus f.194; angels carrying female soul to heaven f.278v.

Provenance
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