Medieval Miniature on vellum from a French Book of Hours in Latin by the "Monkey Master."

Herod's Murder of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt. Vespers

      Northern France: c1480. - Single leaf. 82 x 155mm. Fine Medieval Miniature on vellum from Northern France from a Book of Hours on vellum in Latin with text in Batarde Secretary script.Herod dresses in gold and white with red shading sits on a green cloth covered throne with a canopy in a opened room decorated with lettering at the base of the walls with stone tile floors with rd and green marbling. A soldier in armor of gold with a blue covering highlighted in gold knells at his feet with a spear. Two soldiers in armor in colors stand just outside sabbing two infants while two female figures look desolately on. In the rear Joseph leads Mary and the infant Jesus away on donkey-back. In the rear are castleated towns. In the lower compartment is the text in 9 lines in gold and rose inks. 5 decorated initials. The opening "D" is in silver on a gold background with a dragonfly and flowers. The other initials are in blue and gold. The decorative border is gold vines and a brown ground. A peacock and a frog on a green mound are at the bottom.On the verso is a text of 31 lines in brown and rose inks with 17 small initials in blue, gold and red with white accents. A the left is a border in blue with floral background in lighter blue and gold. A monkey with a jester's cap plays a krumhorn.The Monkey Master, so called because of the use of a monkey figure in the drolleries, was probably not one man but a workshop in Delft.Some minor rubbing, some trces on verso edges of old mounting. On the "Monkey Master" see "The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting" New York: Brazillier, 1990 pp266; 277-8.