PENTECOST, miniature by the Spanish Forger on a leaf from a 15th-century Book of Hours [Paris, c.1900]

PENTECOST, miniature by the Spanish Forger on a leaf from a 15th-century Book of Hours [Paris, c.1900]

An appealing example a 'medieval fake': a delightful representation of Pentecost by 'one of the most successful, skilful and prolific forgers of all time', the Spanish Forger.

165 x 121mm. The 15th-century text opening the Hours of the Holy Spirit from a Book of Hours. 16 lines of text, rules space: 96 x 72mm, verso with 6 illuminated initials and rubrics in red (slight rubbing to the burnished gold).

Celebrated for painting striking original 'medieval' miniatures in Paris between the 1890s and 1920s, often, as in this case, using fragments of 14th- to 16th-century manuscripts, the Spanish Forger was fundamentally an illuminator rather than a copyist, creating innovative compositions in his own distinctive style and becoming, in time, eminently collectible in his own right (see W. Voelkle, The Spanish Forger, New York, 1978).