Harrowing of Hell miniature may be by the Masters of the Zwolle Bible

Lawrences, England, sold on 16 June 2017 a "Flemish miniature, ca. 1450" Harrowing of Hell, estimated at £150 to £250.

It seemed to me that this is a ca. 1470-1490 miniature of the "Sarijs manuscripts" from Zwolle, in the Netherlands. perhaps even (but this is a wild guess) one of the many missing miniatures from a book of hours sold by Sotheby's in 2013 for £18,750.

The "Sarijs" manuscripts are so called because of a "typo" in them, Sarijs instead of Marijs. They were decorated in a very specific style, described in a 1989 exhibition catalogue (quoted in the Sotheby's auction catalogue) as "...colours are kept pale, and the illumination has a quality of extreme lightness" The work for sale here is described a "faded" by the auction house, but I think this is partially due to the original pale, light illumination and not so much to later fading.

The illustration has other elements typical of the Sarijs manuscripts, ranging from the typical halo of the Christ (with the form of the cross in it) to especially elements of the border decoration.

It certainly isn't part of the manuscript in the Walters, as that one still has its own Harrowing of Hell depiction.

The image here is typical of many such "Harrowing of Hell" depictions, with Christ getting the lost souls back from Hell or Purgatory, starting with Adam. The Gate of Hell is usually shown as either the mouth of a monster or some real gate, and occasionally a combination of both like here.

A very comparable iconography is this image, but I don't know where it actually comes from. The wonders of the internet... The execution of this one is completely different though.

I was quite convinced that the miniature for sale was worth a lot more than estimated, so I kept quiet about it and posted a bid. Sadly, many others had spotted this one as well, and it went for £2,100 (plus costs) or more than 10 times the estimate. I wonder whether it will reappear at auction with a "Master of Zwolle" attribution, or whether someone has bought it for their own pleasure, or even to complete a manuscript they have?