PENTECOST and CHRIST BEFORE CAIAPHAS, two miniatures from an Amiens Book of Hours illuminated by the WADDESDON MASTER [Amiens, c.1440]

Two remarkable fragments from a now lost Book of Hours by the Waddesdon Master, an Amiénois artist responsible for the lavish Waddesdon Hours in the collection of James A. de Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor, MS 6. The Master was deeply influenced by the work of the Master of Raoul d’Ailly, the finest illuminator working in Amiens at this period. The Waddesdon Master relies heavily on the d’Ailly Master’s stock of compositions, and shares his superb use of colours and painterly technique, imbuing his figures with an energetic and more popular flavour. In addition to the Waddesdon Hours and the present leaves, he was also responsible for the illumination of two other Books of Hours in Detroit (Public Library, MS 3) and Glasgow (University Library, Euing MS 4). The present miniatures are closely related to the Waddesdon Hours – indeed the miniature depicting Pentecost is almost identical to the equivalent miniature in the Waddesdon Hours (f.103). But the technique is richer and more refined: the intact manuscript would doubtless have been an expensive production.

The Pentecost miniature opens the Hours of the Holy Spirit; the miniature of Christ before Caiaphas opens Lauds from the Hours of the Passion.

Provenance:
- From a manuscript made in Amiens c.1440.
- DANIEL BURCKHARDT-WILDT (1752-1819), ff. 36-37 in his album of miniatures and cuttings, sold at Sotheby’s, 25 April 1983, lot 112.

Measurements:
Two leaves, 182 x 126mm. Versos with 12 and 16 lines of text, written space: 104 x 64mm.


Bibliography:
S. Nash, Between France and Flanders: Manuscript illumination in Amiens in the Fifteenth Century, 1999, pp. 107-122 and cat. 19.

L.M.J. Delaissé, Illuminated Manuscripts, 1977, pp. 106-131.

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