Miniatures

This is one of twelve known leaves that come from two related Books of Hours. It illustrates the Annunciation to Joachim in the main miniature. An angel visits Joachim (his name is written in goldleaf on the banderole above his head), who was a shepherd, in a composition that recalls the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and tells him that he and his wife, Anne, will bear a child. The angel’s words “Habebis filiam et nomen eius erit Maria” (You will have a daughter, and her name will be Maria) appear in the banderole held by the angel. In the margin, Anne, seated, teaches her child, the Virgin Mary to read, as she holds and points to a book on her lap. The miniature and bas-de-page illustrate the Suffrage to Saint Anne, which begins “Felix anna quedam” (Happy Anne who …) introduced by a two-line initial and written in a bâtarde script. The subject matter is extraordinary and speaks in favor of a special commission. Although other Books of Hours include an illustration for the Suffrage of Anne, none to our knowledge include the very rare scene of the Annunciation to Joachim. Text on the reverse is the conclusion to the Suffrage to Saint Francis, a miniature not yet recovered.

Sixteen leaves, including the present one, were in the sale of Frédéric Spitzer’s collection in Paris in 1893. Based on differences in script, initials, and language, Nicole Reynaud recognized in 1999, that the Spitzer leaves came from two different Books of Hours. The group from which ours comes has 2-line decorated initials, rubrics in Latin, and a bâtarde script. Other miniatures in the group include Saint Giles and Saint Julian in the Victoria and Albert Museum (E4582-1910 and 4583-1910), Saint Germain l’Auxerrois (Judy Webb Collection; gift to University of California, Berkeley), Saint Thomas Aquinas (Paris, Drouot, November 14, 1975), and the Holy Wound (Paris, Marmottan-Monet, inv. M6198). An example of the group from the second Book of Hours also painted by Jean Haincelin but for an unidentified patron is Saint Stephen (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E 4580-1910). Seven are still missing from the Spitzer sale (Adoration of the Holy Crown, Crucifixion, Saints Donatian and Rogatian, Saint Maudez, Baptism of Christ, Descent from the Cross/Pieta, and Saint Christopher). The fact that few of the standard cycles from a Book of Hours (such as the Hours of the Virgin) have turned up leaves some hope for the finding of the parent manuscript. Illuminated in the border with the blanche ursine, the emblem of the Jouvenel des Ursins family, the Saint Germain leaf points to a member of that family as the patron. Elliot Adam has argued that the manuscript from which these leaves come was made for Jacques Jouvenel (1410–1457) in the fashion of his elder brother’s Guillaume Book of Hours now in Paris. Jacques was a great prelate, at the time archbishop of Reims, peer of France, and archdeacon of Notre-Dame de Paris which granted rights to the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois church. The style of these leaves and other of the works attributed to our artist is uniquely appealing: the figures are lively, their faces full of expression, and the whitish draperies beautifully modeled, especially in the figures of Anne and the Virgin. Complementing well the figural scenes are the elegant borders in which swirling acanthus blooms with delicate forget-me-nots, poppies, and strawberries in carefully modulated tones of blue and red. This artist’s work represents the very best of Parisian “golden age” painting as it evolved around mid-century.

We are grateful to Elliot Adam for his expertise.