c 1480 Saints Peter & Paul - Prayerbook cutting

$4,800.00

Exceptional original miniature from a medieval Prayerbook on animal vellum beautifully depicting Saints Peter and Paul. The miniature is cut to shape and mounted on 19th century 120 x 81 mm vellum sheet with calligraphic illuminated  title. Painted in tempera & illuminated with gold leaf. (Miniature: 35 x 25mm - 1.4 x 1")

Bruges (?), c. 1480.

Stylistically related to works by the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook (named after a Book of Hours in Dresden: Landesbib., MS A311). Accustomed to working on a small scale, the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook often contributed roundels to calendars of Books of Hours, in which his small, well-painted figures are usually brightly colored, & set within accomplished landscapes. The structure of the figures & treatment of the faces remain wholly characteristic of the Master -  ref : The Breviary of Isabella of Castile (British Library AMS 18851), also illuminated by this artist.

The Crohin-la Fontain Book of Hours, with related miniatures by the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook, preserves an extensive series of suffrages (Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum MS 230). Another series of cuttings of similar size and composition, also attributed to the Dresden Master was folio 45 of the Burkhardt-Wildt album (See Hindman, Medieval and Renaissance Painting, entry 36).

Presented in an archival 14x11'' mat.

  • Inventory# IM-5255