THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours [Paris, c.1460-70]

A large and fine leaf from a Book of Hours illuminated by Maître François (fl. c. 1460-80), one of the leading illuminators of the school that dominated Paris in the latter half of the fifteenth century. An oeuvre of around fifty manuscripts has been reconstructed for the anonymous master through comparison to his single documented work from 1475: a two-volume La Cité de Dieu,Raoul de Presles’ vernacular translation of St Augustine (Paris, Bib. Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 246). The miniature is close to the early style of the Maître François, most specifically that of the Hours of Jacques de Langeac (Lyon, Bib. Mun., ms. 5154) painted 1465-68 – particularly characteristic is a slight swarthiness of the male faces and the liberal use of gold to highlight – while the figure of God enthroned, wearing a three-crown tiara, reappears in recognisable stylistic form in his later manuscripts.

The text opens Compline in the Hours of the Virgin.

Measurements:
210 x 153mm.

Bibliography:
F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1994, pp. 45-52.

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