Original leaf from a medieval Book of Hours on animal vellum. Recto: blank. (150 x 100mm – 5 7/8 x 4’’)
France, (Angers ?), c. 1460. Circle of Barthelemy d’Eyck (Maitre du Cœur D’Amour Epris, one of the most important masters of French illumination of the 15th century).
Full-page miniature in liquid gold & vibrant colors depicts Job outside the city gates. The painterly application of pigment in tertiary colors, the simulated picture frames surrounding the penitential images, & trompe l’oeil shading in the border evoke the courtly art of Barthelemy d’Eyck (compare Hours of Rene d’Anjou – Paris, Bnf, MS lat. 17332 & British Library, Egerton MS 1070). Other features from the original manuscript, including the unusual trompe l’oeil margins & fascination with death equally evoke the Netherlandish artist, first recorded in Aix in 1444. J
Job is shown wearing a loincloth, his hands together in prayer, studying the three gesticulating men on the right. The ailing Job, having suffered many afflictions, including loss of his children, riches, & health, is reduced to resting on a heap of dung. The course of events in this Old Testament story began when God asked Satan if he had noticed the piety of the good man Job. Satan replied that it was easy for a successful & happy man to be faithful. God then took away Job's worldly comforts one by one to test his faith. In the end, Job recognized he could not fathom God's workings; only submit in humility to his decrees.
This unusual leaf was formerly in the collection of Count Paul Durrieu (1855-1925), eminent historian of late Medieval French Illuminated Manuscripts, and Keeper of Manuscripts at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
