Individual illuminated Leaf from a 15th c. French Book of Hours featuring Evangelist Mark & Lion
This parchment page was likely painted by a painter known as the Master of the Burgundian Prelates (active 1480-90) and whose name might have been Pierre Changenet. His patrons were the ecclesiastics who lived in Autun and Dijon, Burgundy (France). The painter is known to have executed many Books of Hours (as well as Missals, Breviaries, Pontificals, etc.). The page features Evangelist Mark with his symbol, the Lion; each is featured in an individual box set among steady-handed Latin text in brown and red ink. The Book of Hours from which the present leaf comes was in the celebrated collection of William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), first Vicount Astor, dispersed in 1988 (see London, Sotheby's 21 June 1988, lot 64). See also J. Plummer, _The Last Flowering: French Painting in Manuscripts, 1420-1530_ (New York, 1982), p. 75.

The miniature represents Evangelist Mark writing his Gospel in an initial "I" and a lion reclining in a landscape in the lower margin. Tradition has it that Mark was the traveling companion of Paul on one of his missionary trips and that, after leaving Paul, he journeyed to Rome with Peter and, as Peter's secretary, wrote his Gospel. As secretary and Evangelist, he appears here with pen and paper in hand. In the lower margin Mark's symbol, the lion, represents the royal dignity of Christ as Mark's Gospel dwells most fully upon the Resurrection of Christ.

Provenance: The Ken and Elizabeth Teasdale Family, St. Louis, MO
5 7/8 inches x 4 1/4 inches

excellent