Page from the Diurnal of King Rene of Anjou, Antique Print, 1849

A page from a royal prayer book: a crowded Flemish miniature of the mocking of Christ, with a crowd of faces pressed together under a vaulted arcade, set in a wide gold border that is filled with grisaille figures of prophets standing in niches, pansies and strawberries scattered between them. The sheet is lettered as a page from the Diurnal of King Rene, manuscript 547 of the supplement latin in the Bibliotheque nationale de Paris.

The sheet comes from Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, the great illustrated survey of medieval and Renaissance life edited by Paul Lacroix and Ferdinand Sere and published in Paris from the Administration at 5 rue du Pont-de-Lodi. This is Tome Second, dated 1849 on its own title page. The colored drawings were made by A. Rivaud and his colleagues and printed in chromolithography by the Paris house of Lemercier, then the finest color printer in Europe.

Rene of Anjou, King of Naples and Duke of Anjou, was a writer and a patron as much as a ruler, and his books are among the best Flemish work made for a French prince. The border of grisaille figures within a gold field is exceptionally rich. This is one of the most elaborate sheets in the volume and holds its own on a crowded wall.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.