BOOK OF HOURS OF THE POU-DE VEAUCE (FOR... - Lot 22 - Aguttes

Lot 22
Go to lot
Estimation :
150000 - 200000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 119 600EUR
BOOK OF HOURS OF THE POU-DE VEAUCE (FOR... - Lot 22 - Aguttes
BOOK OF HOURS OF THE POU-DE VEAUCE (FOR USE IN POITIERS AND PARIS) Book of Hours of the Pou-de Veauce (For the use of Poitiers and Paris) France, Tours, c. 1475-80 234 ff, flyleaf, (blank leaves removed after leaves 36 and 123, leaf 120 is detached and should follow leaf 123); (i12, ii8+1, iv7 (blank leaf viii removed), v8+1, vi10, vii-xiv8, xv3+1 [blank leaf iv removed], xviii8, xix8+1, xx-xxviii8, xxix6); 110 x 83 mm. (66 x 43 mm.); on parchment; 13 long lines in carbon ink; red ink rules; modern pencil foliation erroneous (+1 after 43, +2 after 89, +3 after 124); semi-hybrida formata ; 4 full-page miniatures attributable to the Master of Boccaccio of Munich and 12 historiated vignettes attributable to Jean Bourdichon - red, blue and gold ink calendar with marginal bands decorated with acanthus leaf scrolls, small gilded besants leaves, strawberries and flowers, painted initials on gilded grounds with a central flower motif, small gilded initials decorated on blue, brown or red grounds ends of lines, one hundred and forty-eight marginal bands with motives of fine leaves and colored flowers on untied stems furnished with gilded besants, frames with the sheets comprising the 12 vignettes or the initials on four lines, the frames appear on liquid gold funds with motives of flowers and insects, the four full page miniatures have frames painted as set with jewels; book regularly flipped, some illuminations have rubbed marks including the first page and the full-page miniatures, some frames and headbands trimmed by the 19th century binding, small wormholes on the last leaf, good condition overall. 19th century full vellum, long spine with double gilt fillet at the nerves, double fillet on the boards, gilt edges, preserved in a white cloth case made for Major Abbey (110 x 76 mm) Well known to art historians, this exceptional manuscript contains particularly original miniatures of great finesse, probably the work of the young Jean Bourdichon (c. 1457-1521) and the Master of the Boccaccio of Munich, identified by François Avril as one of the sons of Jean Fouquet, one of the greatest painters of the French Renaissance. This masterpiece of Touraine art was probably commissioned in 1481 by Lord François du Pou, secretary to Duke François II of Brittany, and owned by his wife Jeanne du Pou. ICONOGRAPHY At the time of the discovery of the manuscript by scholars in 1965, Andreas Mayor described the miniature of the Triumph of Death as "unique not only in the work of Fouquet and his school but in the whole of fifteenth-century French painting. In 1989, König, based on Andreas Mayor's analysis, attributed the four miniatures to Fouquet himself (Tenschert, 1989, n°69). Nicole Reynaud, on the other hand, extended the attribution to Fouquet's circle and identified the hand of the illuminator of the Hours of François de Bourbon-Vendôme (Paris, Arsenal, Ms 417), a member of Fouquet's circle (Avril and Reynaud, 1993, p.150). Reynaud, noting that the dates of production were relatively late to be the production of Jean Fouquet himself, suggested that the manuscript must be in the hand of one of his sons, Louis or François, the Master of Boccaccio of Munich. The influence of Jean Fouquet is undeniable in the four full-page miniatures in the manuscript. The depth of the successive planes of the Triumph of Death takes up the technique of "aerial perspective" of Alberti mastered by Fouquet; the verticals of the characters and the depigmentation towards the blue shades increase the effect of perspective. The compositions of the Coronation of the Virgin and the Annunciation are also inspired by the Hours of Charles de Croy in the Ruskin Museum and the Hours of Jean Robertet in the Morgan Library (Ms. M. 834). The miniature of David and Goliath is similar to the Hours of Phillipe de Commynes, attributed in turn to Colombe or Fouquet himself. The historiated initials with various bust portraits are attributed by König to the work of the young Jean Bourdichon (ca. 1475-80), who was at the side of Jean Fouquet's son, the Master of the Boccaccio in Munich. The mid-body framing of the figures in his compositions is a characteristic of the artist. More recently, François Avril, in an intervention on the Hours of Veauce, proposed another identification. For him it is neither Fouquet nor Bourdichon but a contemporary of Bourdichon during the same period whose style seems less cold than the master of the Hours of Anne of Brittany. And the artist of the Bourbon-Vendôme Hours in the Arsenal seems to be from the close circle of Fouquet (König later reconfirmed his attributions to Jean Fouquet and the young Bourdichon).
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue