[ENLUMINURE]. Fragment of a choir book (Gradual or Antiphonary?) Historiated initial D Pontius Pilate washing his hands after Jesus' judgment Jesus led by soldiers after his condemnation by Pontius Pilate France, Paris, circa 1530-1540 Attributable to the Master of François de Rohan (active in Paris from 1525 to 1546) Dimensions: 140 x 140 mm Illumination mounted on a cardboard base, framed in ink and marked: "Peinture sur vélin" (size of cardboard base: 173 x 174 mm) This historiated initial is attributable to an anonymous artist called "Maître de François de Rohan", named after the Fleur de Vertus commissioned by François II de Rohan (Paris, BnF, MS Fr. 1877). The painter used a highly colorful palette, reflecting an aesthetic of the middle of the second quarter of the 16th century. He worked for a number of important patrons, including Marguerite de Navarre (see the manuscript La Coche (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 522)), Anne de Montmorency, Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, and above all King François I, for whom he painted a Book of Hours between 1539-1542 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). On the Maître de Rohan, see : M. D. Orth, "The Master of François de Rohan: A Familiar French Renaissance Miniaturist with a New Name," in M. Brown and S. McKendrick, eds, Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters. Essays in Honour of Janet Backhouse, London, 1998, pp. 69-91. - M. D. Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts: The Sixteenth Century, Turnhout, 2015. Expert: Ariane ADELINE