Virgin at Prayer, with a border of angels and birds

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Accession number: 
MS M.1212
Title: 
Virgin at Prayer, with a border of angels and birds
Created: 
The Netherlands, Utrecht and Delft, ca. 1460-1470
Credit: 
Purchased as the gift of Professor James H. Marrow and Dr. Emily Rose in memory of Melvin R. Seiden, 2018.
Description: 
1 leaf : vellum, illuminated, matted ; 187 x 131 mm
Provenance: 
An antiquarian who worked in the Rhineland; acquired from the antiquarian's estate by a relative; who consigned the leaf for auction in Cologne, Venator & Hanstein, 16 March 2018, lot 534.
Notes: 

A single leaf from a Book of Hours with an historiated initial and border illuminated by the Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures.
This leaf possibly comes from the same parent Book of Hours as Morgan MS M.1209. That leaf, illuminated by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, was painted late in the artist's career (ca. 1460). Like a Book of Hours in the Hague (Museum Meermanno, MS 10 F 50), which was begun by the Master of Catherine of Cleves but completed by Lieven van Lathem), the present leaf, illuminated by the Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures, could come from a commission to the Master of Catherine of Cleves that was interrupted and left unfinished by his death.
Associated text: Matins and (on the verso) the beginning of Prime of the Short Hours of the Compassion of the Virgin, in Dutch; the text continues on the verso.
Text begins: "Een deuot ghebet tot o[n]ser vrouwe[n]. O Maria maget boue[n] allen in heilicheden om dat ellendige ..."
Scribe: unknown.
Decoration: 1 historiated intitial (O) and seven vignettes within a foliate border.
Artist: Masters of the Delft Half-Length Figures.

Language: 
Dutch
Classification: