[wrongly known as the Master of the Horloge de Sapience] ( fl c. 1440–65). Illuminator, active in France. This anonymous master was named by Spencer (1963) after his work in manuscripts that belonged to or were associated with Cardinal Jean II Rolin (1408–83), third son of Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of Burgundy: the Missals in Autun (Autun, Bib. Mun., MSS 108A and 114A) and Lyon (Lyon, Bib. Mun., MS. 517). Certain elements in the Rolin Master’s style may derive from the work of Jan van Eyck and even from that of Rogier van der Weyden, but he appears to have been trained in a Parisian atelier. His work is found with that of an illuminator working in the style of the Bedford Master in a Book of Hours in London (BL, Add. MS. 25695) and with the Bedford Master himself in another Book of Hours in Vienna (Österreich. Nbib., Cod. 1840; see fig.). The Rolin Master’s compositional structures are often archaic, and formats in Missals and Books of Hours (e.g. the Book of Hours in Baltimore, MD, Walters A.G., MS. Walters 251) recall those of the Boucicaut and the Bedford Masters. The layouts in an Horloge de sapience (Brussels, Bib. Royale Albert 1er, MS. IV 111) are more imaginative. The 34 miniatures in this French version of the Horologium sapientiae by the Dominican mystic Heinrich Seuse, alias Suso (c. 1300–66), are the epitome of the Rolin Master’s style.

Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family

• Jean Rolin, Master of
  • François, Maître
  • Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists, §I: Bedford Master, §2: Workshop style and practice
  • Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists, §I: Master of Jacques de Besançon
  • patrons and collectors
    • Rolin: (2) Guillaume Rolin
    • Rolin: (3) Jean Rolin II