On the creation of the Gradual of King Matthias

Abstract

Although the style of the miniatures in the Gradual of King Matthias has been classified since the beginning as French or Flemish, the origin of the illuminator and of the manuscript itself (whether it was produced in the Netherlands or in Buda) has remained highly disputed. Research carried out by Sandra Hindman and Akiko Komada resulted in the uncovering of a group of works that are more or less closely related to the Gradual. By closely examining the style of these works, I have attempted to revise this group, and to extend it with one new attribution. While the starting point for Hindman – a leaf from the Lehman Collection – has been excluded, there is convincing evidence to support the idea that the Cite de Dieu from Turin and a part of a Bible historiale from New Haven (Beinecke 129), first linked together by Barbara A. Shailor in 1984, were painted by the same hand, namely the Master of the Turin Augustine. With the help of a Book of Hours from the British Library, which shares certain characterist...