A portrait of St. Mark is encapsulated in the text which begins his Gospel Sequence. He sits engaged in the composition of his Gospel, pen and scroll in hand. Descending through the neat gold batarde script, a lion reclines in a wide landscape. In the far distance, there is a city, which could be Dijon, where this leaf was likely painted between 1480-1490. The skilled painter is known as the Master of the Burgundian Prelates, and perhaps is the painter Pierre Changenet. Active in Burgundy for many patrons, the artist created many illustrious illuminated manuscripts which still survive in public and private collections. This leaf features his own particular construction of space, balancing text and image in a masterful way.

PROVENANCE  

1. Mâconnais, a member of the Charnay family, whose arms appear on f. 43v (USA, Private Collection).

2. Louis Lange (name on f. 66v).

3. William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), first Viscount Astor (Astor MS A.18); inherited by his son Waldorf Aster, second Viscount Astor (1879-1952); inherited by his son William Waldorf Astor II, third Viscount Astor (1907-1966); deposited at the Bodleian Library shortly before the death of the third Viscount in 1966; sold by order of the Trustees of the Astor Family in London, Sotheby’s, 1 December 1987, lot 46. The rest of the Astor manuscripts were sold in London, Sotheby’s, 21 June 1988. The Astor collection had two important horae by the Master(s) of the Burgundian Prelates.  The one from which this leaf came and another, MS A.14, which sold in London, Sotheby’s, 21 June 1988, lot 64, illus. (and now Morgan MS M.1200). 

4. Akron, Ohio, USA, Bruce Ferrini, manuscript dismembered, 13 November 1994.

5. Les Enluminures, Chicago and Paris.

6. Private Collection, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Kenneth and Elizabeth Teasdale.

SISTER LEAVES

Boston Public Lib., MS pb. Med. 236 (Secular/Sacred, 11th-16th Century.  Works from the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ed. Nancy Netzer, 2006, no. 64, illus.) https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:3r076r32f.

University of North Texas, Special Collection Library.

USA, Private Collection, New York, collector owns nearly 30 leaves.

USA, Private Collection, Chicago, IL.

LITERATURE  

François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, p. 394 (as Sotheby’s, 1 Dec. 1987, lot 46).

Decu Teodorescu, Carmen, and Frédéric Elsig, Les Changenet, Milan: Silvana, 2020, 20, 128, cat. II.3, illus. (as Sotheby’s, 1 Dec. 1987, lot 46).

Elliot Adam and Sophie Caron, La maison Changenet:  Une famille de peintres entre Provence et Bourgogne vers 1500, Paris, 2021, 127 n. 14 (as Sotheby’s, 1 Dec. 1987, lot 46).

Lauga, Jacques, “Les manuscrits liturgiques dans le diocèse de Langres à la fin du Moyen Âge:  Les commanditaires et leurs artistes,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Paris, 2007, I, 247-72; III, 44 (Astor A.18 cited), 187-92 This dissertation has long discussion about and lists of the Master of the Burgundian Prelates’ work.