Leaf from a Book of Hours showing the Presentation in the Temple

Leaf from a Book of Hours showing the Presentation in the Temple

This detached manuscript leaf introduced the hour of Prime for the Hours of the Virgin in a Book of Hours produced in France in the second decade of the sixteenth century. This miniature of the Presentation in the Temple is attributed to a close associate of the Master of the Parisian Entries, an artist potentially identifiable through an inscription in another one of his works as Jean Coene IV (act. ca. 1490–1520). The busy, asymmetrical columns, playful putti, and hanging garlands are typical of the French adaptation of all’antica ornament, which resembles that of contemporary Veneto-Paduan frontispieces.

Illuminator: workshop of the Master of the Parisian Entries (Jean Coene IV?)

ca. 1520

Illuminated manuscript leaf on parchment

Private Collection, Philadelphia

Paris, France