STUNNING 15TH-CENTURY ILLUMINATED LEAF DEPICTING SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE THREE SCHOOLBOYS
(ILLUMINATED LEAF). Illuminated leaf from a mid-15th-century Book of Hours. France, circa 1450. Single sheet of parchment (4 by 3 inches), with a miniature of Saint Nicholas and containing an initial letter on a gold-leaf ground. Silk matted and window framed, entire piece measures 11-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches.
Original medieval illuminated leaf from a French Book of Hours in Latin, with a miniature showing Saint Nicholas raising three schoolboys from the dead, with a beautiful four-line initial letter “H” executed in red against a gold-leaf background, with intricate leaf-and-tendril designs extending throughout the margins.
The vibrant miniature illustration shows Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, wearing his bishop’s mitre and carrying a staff, raising three schoolboys from the dead. The schoolboys had been killed and dismembered by a shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper’s wife had put the mutilated bodies in a pickling barrel to be used later as food. Saint Nicholas blessed the barrel, miraculously bringing the three boys back to life. This richly illuminated leaf contains part of the Latin text of a Book of Hours, produced in France (possibly Rouen) and rendered in a Continental Caroline Miniscule bookhand, with a four-line capital “H” executed in red against a gold-leaf background, with an intricate leaf-and-tendril border. The verso shows 15 lines of Latin text, a two-line capital “D,” also in gold-leaf against a red background and with an intricate leaf-and-tendril border. During the process of writing, the medieval scribe left spaces and provided instructions for the illuminator, who began his work by laying out the designs in graphite and reinforcing them with ink. These drawings were highly refined— by no means hasty sketches. The support was then coated with liquid size (animal glue dissolved in water) and the gilding begun, always executed before the actual painting. This is crucial for two reasons. The first is that gold will adhere to any pigment, ruining the design; and secondly the action of burnishing is vigorous and risks smudging any painting already around it. The final and most important stage was the painting itself. The pigment was mixed into gum arabic, a binding medium to which egg yolk, sugar, or ear wax was sometimes added. The painting technique was slow-paced, careful work with tiny, meticulous brushstrokes, creating clearly defined forms and homogenous areas of color. The whole process of book illumination was very time-consuming and costly, therefore the illuminated manuscript was almost exclusively a luxury item for the wealthy.
A fine illuminated leaf, beautifully framed.