Anonynmous Breton illuminator
Lot 19

Anonynmous Breton illuminator

St Maturinus of Sens, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours [Brittany, c.1430-40]

Closed15 December 2021

Price Realised

GBP 3,000

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Anonynmous Breton illuminator
St Maturinus of Sens, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours [Brittany, c.1430-40]
A colourful miniature illuminated in an engaging and rustic style typical of Breton illumination depicting the wonderworking exorcist St Maturinus of Sens with a flock of sheep against a pastoral landscape.

197 x 139mm. The text with the suffrage to St Maturinus, the French exorcist and missionary, reverse with 19 lines of text, 2 illuminated initials, and the rubric for the suffrage to St Florentinus (some light marginal soiling). Window mount. Provenance: This leaf is f.309 from a gathering of 8 leaves, foliated 304-311, containing 11 suffrages to saints, each with a miniature, sold at Sotheby's, 29 November 1990, lot 33. It was bought by Maggs, and leaves appeared in their European Bulletin 18 (1993), no 5 (St Nicholas, St Sebastian), and Catalogue 1167 [1994] nos 31A (St Florentinus, St Leonard), 31B (St Eligius). The leaf with Sts Florentinus and Leonard was sold at Christie's, 14 May - 4 June 2020, lot 4. (2) Maggs, 19 July 1991, to the present owner.

The style of illumination suggests that the manuscript was painted in north-west France, probably Brittany, where Rennes was a major centre of book illumination. A very similar Breton decorative vocabulary can be seen in a Book of Hours at the Morgan Library, MS M.173, produced in Rennes in c.1430.