AN ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAF WITH AN EXCELLENT M...

TEXT FROM THE OPENING OF PRIME.

      Paris, ca. 1460 120 x 85 mm. (4 3/4 x 3 1/2""). Single column three lines of text on recto 15 on verso in a fine regular gothic book hand. Attractively matted. Rubrics in red verso with one two-line and five one-line initials as well as four line fillers all in colors and burnished gold the same side with a swirling quarter panel border featuring flowers acanthus and other vegetation and many burnished gold ivy leaves on hairline stems the recto with a large three-line D in blue and white with enclosed scrolling flowered stems the whole on a burnished gold ground; the recto WITH A FULL INHABITED BORDER featuring lush acanthus and other fruits and vegetation as well as two large birds with fluttering wings the border FRAMING A LOVELY ARCH-TOPPED ILLUMINATED MINIATURE OF THE NATIVITY (measuring approximately 65 x 44 mm.) the scene showing the Virgin and her husband kneeling in the foreground flanking the Christ Child who radiates gold holiness on the ground (and kicks the bottom of his mother's cloak perhaps being a little cold in his nakedness) two shepherds in the background and in the distance a conical green hill and two towers flanked by tiny peaked roofs. IN REMARKABLE CONDITION the paint and gold entirely intact and the vellum quite clean and fresh. The blonde Virgin with a delicate and lovely face kneels at a corner of the manger dressed in pink and blue hands joined in adoration of her babe with an elderly tonsured Joseph in attendance (though obviously in a subordinate position); the heads of the (atypically) recumbent cow and donkey peek out from behind the parents. The golden rays emitted by the wriggling Christ Child here reflect a convention that artists began to incorporate into the Nativity after the 14th century mystic Bridget of Sweden had visualized the newborn Christ radiating light. In the background are the two shepherds on either side of a wattle fence one craning up his head the gold light of the star shining down on his face. The figure of the Virgin is excellently rendered with deft strokes suggesting the sweetness of her face and the tenderness of her feelings. Most important and most successful from the standpoint of the artist's decisions mother and child are shown here in a bright clear light while everything else in the scene is set back and depicted in more sombre tones. In any Book of Hours and especially within the Hours of the Virgin the focus is on the Blessed Mother as the object of reverence and source of human assistance and that fact is never more clear than in this miniature. $6000