PARIS.- Les Enluminures gallery will showcase several exceptional examples of Illuminated Medieval and Renaissance miniatures, manuscripts, stained glass and finger rings at TEFAF Maastricht from March 16 - 25.

The world’s premier antiques and art show, The European Fine Arts Fair attracts over 250 of the most esteemed dealers from more than 17 countries and is vetted by no less than 29 different committees comprised of 175 world experts. Each year Maastricht attracts the world’s leading museums, collectors and connoisseurs of art.

Galerie Les Enluminures founder, Dr. Sandra Hindman says she is particularly thrilled to have “Triumph of David,” by the Berlin Master of Mary of Burgundy to show at this year’s TEFAF.

Dr. Hindman says, “The Master of Mary of Burgundy was originally named after two manuscripts, one in Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett, MS 78 B 12) made for Mary of Burgundy and her husband Maximilian I and another one in Vienna also made for Mary of Burgundy (ÖNB, Cod. 1857). Recent scholarship has distinguished between the styles of these two manuscripts, identifying two different artists. This lyrical c1480 illumination is attributed to the Berlin Master, noted as a colorist, with a fine sense of decorative details, and with access to many designs that circulated among the group artists known as the Ghent Associates”.

The Belgian work (153 x 110mm) in tempera and gold leaf has a provenance that includes the Collection Ambroise Firmin-Didot (1790-1876) Hotel Drouot, Catalogue des livres précieux, manuscrits, et imprimés faisant partie de la Bibliothèque de M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, 10-14 June, 1884, lot 88 and it has been extensively described in literature including Brinkmann, B., et al, in Das Berliner Studenbuch der Maria von Burgund und Kaiser Maximilians: Handschrift 76 B 12 m Kupfertichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz, exh. cat., Berlin, 1998; Kren, T., and S. McKendrick, eds., Illuminating the Renaissance. The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, exh. cat., London/Los Angeles, 2003; Pächt, O., The Master of Mary of Burgundy, London, 1948.

A second rare and important work to be featured at TEFAF is a Book of Hours (use of Paris) dating from 1410 and the Workshop of the Luçon Master (Paris active c1405-1415).

In Latin and French, with 14 illuminations and 129 leaves, this illuminated manuscript is on vellum, complete, and bound in old red velvet. It measures 171 x 130 mm. Hindman says, “The Luçon Master, a Parisian illuminator of the ‘Golden age of French illumination,’ is known for his elegant sinuous figures and subtle tonalities. He was active in the generation just before and contemporary with the Boucicaut Master and was first christened by Millard Meiss in 1956 after the cycle of miniatures that illustrates a Missal-Pontifical commissioned by Étienne Loypeau, Bishop of Luçon, later belonging to Jean, Duke de Berry (c. 1405–1407; Paris, BnF, MS lat. 8886).”

“It was written about in Meiss, Millard, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries, 2 vols., New York, Braziller, 1974, pp. 351-352, 393-397; Meiss, Millard, “The Exhibition of French Manuscripts of the XIII-XVIth-Centuries at the Bibliothèque Nationale,” Art Bulletin 38 (1956), pp. 187-196.”

Sandra Hindman founded Les Enluminures gallery in Paris 20 years ago and has seen it become among the top ranked sources for the most significant Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and art entering the market.

Les Enluminures is expanding and adding a New York gallery at 23 East 73 Street in May, 2012. Its Paris gallery is opposite the Louvre at Le Louvre des Antiquaires and Dr. Hindman maintains an office in Chicago where she twice headed the Art History department at Northwestern University during her academic career. She has written 10 books on the subject and publishes comprehensive catalogues on the four specialties of her business, which include Medieval and Renaissance Illuminations, Manuscripts, Finger Rings and Stained Glass.

Les Enluminures clients range from major museums, libraries and universities to important private collectors. The gallery is a featured exhibitor at the world’s most prestigious antiques and art fairs in New York, Paris, Maastricht, London, San Francisco and Florence. It has pioneered the use of 21st century technology for this genre, incorporating video ‘tours,’ and a ‘turn the page’ feature for viewing manuscripts on its web site and embracing social media platforms.