Medieval Miniature from Latin Book of Hours on Vellum. By...

Pieta - Lamentation (Descent from the Cross.)

      Northern France: c1480. Single Leaf 83 x 153mm. Fine Medieval miniature on vellum from a Northern French Book of Hours highlighted in gold. Upper compartment of the recto has the Pieta & Cross; it shows the cross with two men on ladders with torture instruments (one ascending and one descending the cross). Two male witnesses stand in the rear looking on. Three saints surround the foreground figure of Mary holding the body of Christ (Pieta). In the distance are castleated towns on hills. The lower half is filled with a rich field of decorative vines in gold on a brown ground with finely colored grotesques: A bird, a monkey with a crossbow, and a figure riding a dragon holding its maw open. The text compartment is 9 lines in French Batarde Secretary script in gold ink with 6 initial letters in gold on blue background with white tracery. One initial is in gray on gold with decoration.The verso has 24 lines of batard text in brown and pink inks with 8 small decorated initials in gold and blue inks with white tracery and two with floral inserts; border on the right side in gold on brown ground filled with floral designs and a grotesque of a male figure and a monkey-like figure in each others arms, in colors.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.The presence of the Cross and related figures is also indicative of a Flemish influence.Trimmed to margins, edges on rear with some races of old mounting paper. Small rubs but fine. On the "Monkey Master" see "The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting" New York: Brazillier, 1990 pp266; 277-8.