[ENLUMINURE]. - Lot 12

[ENLUMINURE]. Saint John the Baptist Enluminated from a Book of Hours, illustrating the Suffrages (suffrage to Saint John the Baptist). France, Paris (Groupe du Maître de Bedford) (Master of Dunois, Jean Haincelin?), circa 1440-1450. Enluminated with a hole in the pictorial surface camouflaged by a thin strip of gilded paper. A few folds or small cracks in the pictorial surface. Otherwise good condition. Dimensions: 100 x 65 mm Circled at the top, this illumination shows Saint John the Baptist standing in a steep, rocky landscape, with a few trees with lighter foliage and grass on the ground. In the background, two "wild beasts" echo the condition of a frugal ascetic in a wild desert environment: a bear and a lion spring up behind the rock formation on the right. The holy man holds a book on which stands the Lamb of God. We do not know from which Book of Hours this illumination was taken. The illuminator certainly belonged to the Bedford Group, artists who were influenced by or worked in the flourishing workshop of the Master of Bedford (Haincelin de Haguenau), active in Paris in the first half of the 15th century (c. 1405-1435), so named for the important commissions he carried out for John of Bedford, Duke of Lancaster. One such personality is the Maître de Dunois, reputedly active from circa 1435 to 1466, who owes his name to the Hours of Jean de Dunois (London, BL, Yates Thomson 3), illegitimate son of Louis I d'Orléans (appellation given by N. Reynaud). Sometimes referred to as the "principal associate of the Master of Bedford", it has been suggested that the Master of Dunois was a painter by the name of Jean Haincelin (documented from 1438 to 1449), who worked for numerous clients close to Charles VII, including Prigent de Coëtivy, Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins and others. The presence of the bear in our illumination is perhaps no coincidence (the emblem of the Jouvenel des Ursins family is omnipresent in the Hours of the Chancellor Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins (Paris, BnF, NAL 3226). The elongation of Jean-Baptiste's limbs and the half-glazed treatment of the flesh are reminiscent of the Master of Dunois, as are the landscapes, rock formations and characteristic vegetation... In the Hours of Jean de Dunois (London, BL, Yates Thomson 3), we note the stylistic proximity with an illumination featuring the hermit saint Marie l'Egyptienne and Zozime (fol. 287) attributed to the Master of Dunois. See : Deldicque, M., M. Hermant, S. Lagabrielle and S. Lepape (dir.), Les arts en France sous Charles VII (1422-1461), Paris, 2024, cat. 45, 50, 54, 57; Reynolds, C. "The Workshop of the Master of the Duke of Bedford: Definitions and Identities", ed. by G. Croenen and P. Ainsworth, Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, Louvain, 2006, pp. 437-472; Villela-Petit, Inès. Le bréviaire de Châteauroux, Paris and Châteauroux, 2003, pp. 47-48; "Les Heures de Dunois", in Art de l'Enluminure, June-July-August 2008; Avril, F. and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, pp. 23, 36, 37. More recently, see the notices relating to the Master of Beford (Haincelin de Haguenau) and the Master of Dunois (Jean Haincelin) in the catalog Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (Chantilly, 2025), notably p. 277. Also worthy of note is the embroidery depicting a full-length portrait (Lyon, Musée des Tissus, Inv. 24054) of the "precursor" Jean-Baptiste, who was strongly influenced by the art of the Limbourg brothers (see Très Riches Heures exhibition (2025), cat. 76) and whose model is clearly reproduced in our illumination, in inverted form.