Painting & Illumination

SS Peter and paul

Description

the wonderful planes of pure colour that dominate the visual impression, the orange being divided into solid and thin planes delineating the reverse sides of the drapery thus accentuated, as well as the tessellated grounds and pinkish architectural background with (oxidised) silver windows, tie this miniature to the atelier called ‘the Masters of Otto of Moerdrecht’. However, the colours and quality of execution of the figures with more than usually expressive faces suggest a painter who is superior to the artists associated with this style that have come to market in various books in the last decades (eg Sotheby’s 6 December 2001 lot 87).
As Dr. Anne Korteweg has kindly pointed out, the distinctive Bruges border is very close to the Streeter-Picard Hours; Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College Library, MS. 27, fol.77v, (illustrated in Leaves of Gold, 2001, item 40, p.121)

Provenance

Collection France

Literature

J. Marrow et al., The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 1989, pp.75-88).
L.M.J. Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination, 1968, fig. 128.
J.J.G. Alexander, Medieval and Early Renaissance Treasures of the North West, 1976, fig.9a.