Book of Hours (for use in Rome). In Latin... - Lot 14 - Giquello

Lot 14
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50000 - 70000 EUR
Book of Hours (for use in Rome). In Latin... - Lot 14 - Giquello
Book of Hours (for use in Rome). In Latin and Dutch, illuminated manuscript on parchment. Belgium, Ghent or Bruges, ca. 1470. With 13 large and 1 small miniature by an artist of the Masters of the Beady Eyes. 102 ff, preceded and followed by 3 ff. paper endpapers, complete [collation: i6, ii8+2 (with i and vii inserted leaves with miniatures), iii8, iv8+1 (with viii an inserted leaf with miniature), v8, vi10, vii8+2 (with v and x inserted leaves with miniatures), viii8+2 (with i and xi of the leaves inserted with miniatures), ix8+1 (with iii a leaf inserted with miniature), x8, xi8, xii6], gothic script in brown ink, parchment ruled in pale red ink (justification: 75 x 125 mm), 18 lines per page, rubrics in pale red ink, pink and blue line ends with white highlights and burnished gold discs, initials 1- to 2-lines high in burnished gold on blue and dark pink backgrounds with white highlights, large 5-line high initials in pink and/or blue with white decoration on burnished gold backgrounds set with blue scrolls and flowers (introducing the major textual and liturgical divisions), three-quarter illuminated borders marking the major textual divisions, composed of a profuse decoration of two-coloured acanthus leaves flowers and small berries, foliage underlined by small black lines and a sowing of black dots and small discs in burnished gold, decoration on reserved backgrounds, with 13 LARGE MINIATURES (some painted on inserted singletons, others being part of the original booklet) and 1 SMALL MINIATURE, all inscribed in three-quarter illuminated borders (note that at the time of binding, the inner margins have not been trimmed, leaving a strip of white parchment in the inner margins of the leaves with miniatures or three-quarter borders) Bound in full granite brown calf, spine with five raised bands, gilt lettering "Office de la Vierge", marbled paper endpapers, red edges. Some wetness affecting some leaves, with damage to some borders (e.g. ff. 27, 41v, 42). Some repaints or workshop hands (f. 13: face of the Virgin; f. 32: face of the angel; f. 58: face of the king magician standing on the left). Dimensions: 135 x 185 mm. This manuscript is a fine example of Ghent or Bruges production, the workshop of the Masters with slanting eyes being associated, depending on the period, with Ghent or Bruges. The style of the miniatures is reminiscent of the production of the Slant-eyed Masters, a group of artists active in Ghent around 1450-1475, successors of the Golden Scroll Masters, to whom several books of hours are attributed (New York, Columbia University, Benjamin ms. 5; Copenhagen, Royal Library, ms. Addimenta 65 8°; The Hague, ms. 76 K 7 (L. M. J Delaissé, La Miniature flamande, cat. expo. Brussels, 1959, no. 101); Brussels KBR, ms. 10773 (Delaissé, 1959, no. 128) and ms. 10776 (Delaissé, 1959, no. 127); Paris, BnF, ms. lat. 1165. The artist is located in Bruges or Ghent, probably working more in Ghent. In a 2009 study of the Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum manuscripts, N. Morgan and S. Panayotova attribute the following manuscripts to the Slanty-Eyed Masters: 1-1974 dated c. 1450-1460 (notice 181), ms. 142 dated c. 1460 (notice 183), ms. 50 (notice 192) and Clare College ms. KK. 3.1 (notice 185), ms. KK. 3 (record 186) (see Morgan and Panayotova, 2009). The group of artists known as "Masters of the Beady Eyes" is so named after their particular technique of painting eyes: they are drawn with small black lines set with a small disc for the pupil. These artists are to be linked with the workshops of the Masters of the Golden Scrolls in Bruges, but seem to have worked in Ghent. On these artists one can consult L.M.J. Delaissé (La miniature flamande, 1959, pp. 18, 30, 99) who was the first to recognize these artists and their characteristic treatment of the "slanted" eyes. These artists produced a lot, especially for export. Let us recall that Bruges and Ghent were important places for illumination: the practice of manuscripts copied and painted in Flanders for export to England, Spain and France, will take off and then become widespread throughout the fifteenth century (on this practice of manuscripts made in Bruges and Ghent for export, see the works of E. Colledge, "South Netherlands Books of Hours Made for England", Scriptorium, 32, 1978, pp. 55-57; N. J. Rogers, "Patrons and Purchasers: Evidence for the Original Owners of Books of Hours Produced in the Low Countries for the English Market", Als ich can. Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Maurits Smeyers, ed. B. Cardon et al. II, pp. 1165-1181). Provenance 1 - Manuscript copied and illuminated in Ghent or Bruges, on
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