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All auctions / Arts & Graphics / Mary Magdalene with Her Ointment Pot, Miniature from a Book of Hours
A serenely beautiful miniature of the Magdalene displaying all the meticulous technique and sense of calm engagement characteristic of one of the great illuminators of the 15th century, Georges Trubert. c.70 x 50mm. The miniature opening a Suffrage to Mary Magdalene in a Book of Hours, reverse with 15 lines of text (a few small losses of pigment to the sky and mountains, but generally in good condition). Mounted and in an ornate wooden frame. Provenance : (1) ?19th-century ink label ?'1823' on back of frame. (2) The Collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg, their Ms 7. Illumination : The illumination can confidently be attributed to Georges Trubert, illuminator to René of Anjou, one of the greatest, and most romantic, patrons of the 15th century. Trubert was one of only two painters honored by René with appointment as valet de chambre . Although none of his work for René is known to have survived, Trubert is frequently mentioned in the ducal accounts between 1467 and 1480, the year of René's death. Six years later he is recorded receiving gifts from René's grandson, René II, Duke of Lorraine and he was a member of the Duke's Lorraine household from 1491 to 1499. Certain work undertaken for René II between 1492 and 1494 — a Book of Hours (sale R. Esmérian, Paris, Galliéra, 6 June 1972, lot 5, and again Hotel Drouot, 6 December 2022), a Breviary (Paris, Bibl. Arsenal, Ms 601 and Petit Palais Ms 42) and a Diurnal (Paris, BnF, Ms lat.10491) — is the basis for the identification of his style and the attribution to him of other manuscripts. The Magdalene standing with her ointment pot, isolated in an extensive landscape, gives an impression of emotional engagement: a sense of arrested movement and eloquent gesture that is entirely characteristic of Trubert's evolved and accomplished style. His meticulous technique in the Saint's precisely modelled fine-featured face is immediately evident, and can be seen in many of his manuscripts (compare, for example, the miniature of John on Patmos on f.7 of Paris, BnF, NAL 3210 or the Nativity in the Hours of René II, previously in the Esmérian collection and recently sold at Drouot in Paris on 6 December 2022). The multi-colored gold, green, blue and red dress worn by the Magdalene in our miniature is almost identical to that worn by St Veronica in another Trubert Hours at the Morgan Library, MS M.348, f.1, made in Avignon between 1485-90, but, in a sign of the artist's evolving style, "the features have become sharper, the face more angular, and the head more elongated, while the body has greater substance and is more strongly modeled and carefully articulated, as is especially apparent in the drawing of the hands" (Plummer, p.81).
Estimate:£5,228.65
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Estimate:
£5,228.65
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