KING DAVID, THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, A NUN and THREE ANGELS, four leaves from a Delft Book of Hours illuminated by the Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures [Delft, c.1470]

Four charming leaves with penwork initials and blue-red ‘block’ borders in the Delft style and miniatures by the Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures, active from 1450-80 and so-called after the half-length figures that frequently appear in the middle of the outer border decoration, as in the present leaves. Both borders and miniatures are by the same artist responsible for the decoration of another Book of Hours in the Hague, KB, 135 E 22. Each of the four figures in the margins carries scrolls bearing pious mottoes in Dutch, another feature of the Masters’ work.

The decoration and content of the leaves is as follows: (i) King David in prayer and an angel with a scroll in the margin, text opening the Seven Penitential Psalms; (ii) the Virgin and Child and an angel with a scroll in the margin, the text with a prayer to the Virgin; (iii) a nun with a scroll in the margin, the text with the suffrages to Saints Gertrude and Apollonia; (iv) an angel with a scroll in the margin, the text with various prayers.

Provenance:
From a Book of Hours, in Dutch, made in Delft c.1470.

Measurements:
4 leaves, 176 x 121mm. 21 lines, written space: 94 x 64mm.

Bibliography:
- The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 1990, pp.194-197
- The Hague, KB, E, 135 E 22: Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts.

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