THE CRUCIFIXION, miniature on a leaf from the Chester Beatty Book of Hours, Paris, 1408

A ravishing miniature by the Mazarine Master, one of the founding figures of Parisian manuscript illumination. Active in Paris during the first two decades of the 15th century, he has been defined as a distinct personality responsible for some of the most striking works previously attributed to the Boucicaut Master, among them the Book of Hours in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms 469, from which he takes his name. The two masters had a decisive influence on French illumination at one of its most resplendent periods, particularly through their interest in depicting three-dimensional space, and worked for the greatest collectors of the age, like the Duc de Berry. Stylistically close to the Boucicaut Master, the Mazarine Master is distinguished by his greater liking for pattern, seen in the variety of his gilded backgrounds, by his softer modelling of draperies and by his more elegant, graceful figures.

The text of the present leaf opens the Hours of the Cross in the famous Chester Beatty Book of Hours.

Provenance:
- The leaf was f.83 in the Chester Beatty Book of Hours, one of the few securely dated Books of Hours, written in 1408, the year the bridges were washed away in Paris (f.158 with its colophon: Factum est ann omoccccoviijo quo ceciderunt pontes parisius was sold in these rooms, The Arcana Collection, Part I, 7 July 2010, lot 22; a similar inscription appears in Bodleian MS. Douce 144). Its original patron apparently had Breton connections (the litany of the intact manuscript included two Breton bishops).
- JOHN BOYKETT JARMAN (d.1864): his sale, Sotheby's, 13 June 1864, lot 47 – Jarman's collection had been damaged by flooding in 1846.
- EDWARD ARNOLD: his sale, Sotheby's, 6 May, 1929, lot 240.
- SIR ALFRED CHESTER BEATTY (1875-1968): his Ms. W. 103. Chester Beatty had most of the miniatures, including this one, separately mounted. Some were dispersed during his lifetime but the present leaves remained in the collection and were sold as lot 58E in the Chester Beatty Sale, Sotheby's 24 June, 1969. Miniatures from the Chester Beatty Hours are now in various private and public collections.

Measurements:
172 x 130mm., verso with 15 lines of text within full borders.

Bibliography:
E. Taburet-Delahaye and F. Avril, Paris 1400, 2004, pp.280-87.
Gabriele Bartz, Der Boucicaut Meister: Ein unbekanntes Stundenbuch, 1999.

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