TEXT FROM THE SUFFRAGES.

AN ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAF WITH AN HISTORIATED INITIAL DEPICTING ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND A SMALL MINIATURE OF ST. ANTHONY, FROM A BOOK OF HOURS IN LATIN.

(France: ca. 1480). 155 x 108 mm. (6 1/8 x 4 1/4"). Single column, 18 lines in a fine bâtarde hand.

Attractively matted. Rubrics in blue, a two-line initial in brushed gold on a red ground, BOTH SIDES WITH A PANEL BORDER of alternating squares of purple with sprays of blue violets and brushed gold with pink lotus flowers, recto with AN EIGHT-LINE HISTORIATED INITIAL in red and brushed gold on a blue and gold ground DEPICTING JOHN THE BAPTIST, VERSO WITH A SMALL MINIATURE (measuring approximately 35 mm. square) OF ST. ANTHONY. ◆A little soiling and wrinkling to edges, tiny erosion to paint in the larger scene, otherwise a clean, smooth, altogether pleasing leaf.

The quality of the painting here is extremely good, with deft strokes that allow for convincing, emotional portrayal. John the Baptist is shown standing in a field in his ragged tunic, apparently lecturing the small white lamb lying on the open book held in the saint's left hand. St. Anthony the Great, the hermit and Desert Father venerated as the founder of monasticism (and the patron saint of basket makers, brush makers, gravediggers, and those afflicted with skin diseases), is shown with a long beard and monk's robes. (ST12740)

Price: $4,800.00