The Nativity, full-page miniature on a leaf from an illuminated Book of Hours, manuscript on parchment [northern Germany (probably Rhineland), c. 1500]

The Nativity, full-page miniature on a leaf from an illuminated Book of Hours, manuscript on parchment [northern Germany (probably Rhineland), c. 1500]

Large rectangular miniature, the Virgin kneeling and adoring the Christ Child before a dilapidated bower with tiny birds in its rafters, Joseph behind her holding a candle, as angels and others look on adoringly, all within a thick border of burgundy and crystalline blue heightened with scrolling penwork, burnished gold corner- and mid-pieces, reverse blank, small cracks and chips, slight staining to right hand upright border, overall in crisp and glittering condition, 225 by 157mm.; elaborate painted and gilt wooden frame, some cracks and scuffs

This detailed and colourful miniature is typical of Rhenish work from the end of the fifteenth century, with the facial modelling finding parallels in manuscripts such as the Gradual from St. Michael am Wiederbach, Cologne, dated 1531 (Glaube und Wissen, 1998, no. 102), and the form and colour of the realistic frame enclosing the miniature compares closely to another Gradual produced in Cologne in 1498 (ibid. no. 99).