A Musician with a Music Box Leading a Noble Couple Perhaps Just Wed with an Ladies Attendant and Following of Nobles. Grand House in Background.

France, circa 1900. Sheet size 23.5 x 16.5 cm. Miniature in coloured overpainting with gold, framed in a coloured Blue & Pink Border, Gold Sky, white-highlighted border with gold lozenges. Verso square musical notes on four red lines with Latin text and a fleur-de-lis initial. Mounted.

A beautiful and characteristic miniature by the so-called Spanish Forger , one of the greatest imitators of medieval book art in modern times.

The artist, whose identity remains unknown, probably lived in France around 1900. For his high-quality miniatures, he mostly used parchment from old manuscripts. Another characteristic is the sweetly cheerful expression of the depicted faces, which is atypical for the serious and pious expression of medieval paintings.

“The Spanish Forger was one of the most skillful, successful, and prolific forgers of all time. Until recently, his numerous panels, manuscripts, and single leaves were appreciated and admired as genuine fifteenth- and sixteenth-century works. Now they are increasingly sold and collected as forgeries ” (Voelkle, p. 9).