"Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice" @ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Commissione of Doge Francesco Donato to Vincenzo Gritti as Lieutenant of Udine, 1546. leone andante, St. Vincent Ferrer, Latin inscription reading ‘I Francesco Donato, by the grace of God, Doge of Venice, etc’, putti raising the Gritti family arms, antique armor and trophies. Paint and gold paint on vellum, height 24 cm by width 17 cm by depth 4 cm (closed).
BOSTON, MA.- From May 3 to June 19, visitors to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are invited to take a closer look at seven Venetian manuscripts from the museum’s extensive rare books collection in a unique, compact exhibition entitled Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice. Organized by Dr. Anne-Marie Eze, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, whose recent research has focused on Isabella Stewart Gardner as book collector, this collection of beautifully decorated Venetian commissioni will be on view in the museum’s Long Gallery, where they have been kept in covered bookcases since Isabella Gardner’s day.
La Serenissima, or the Most Serene Republic of Venice, existed for over a millennium from the late seventh century to 1797. At the height of its power in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it was the center of an empire extending from mainland Italy to the eastern Mediterranean . The head of state was a Doge elected for life by the nobility, whose privilege and duty it was to manage Venice ’s political affairs.
Books, called commissioni, contained the contracts of Venetian noblemen elected by their peers to oversee the Republic’s provinces usually for sixteen months, or to be lifelong administrators of the city of Venice . From the second half of the fifteenth century until the fall of the Republic, office-holders had their commissioni elaborately written, illuminated, and bound by hand, and conserved them for posterity. Commemorating service to the state, personal achievement, and taste, these manuscripts were objects of privilege, power, and beauty.
Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice draws attention to this distinctly Venetian category of book through a presentation of seven illuminated and finely bound manuscripts, collected by Isabella Gardner and recently the object of new research. These seven form part of a group of twenty Venetian manuscripts in the Gardner ’s collection.
“Commissioni are important to the study of Venetian art and history, because they are dated sources of styles of illumination, bookbinding, and iconography, as well as of heraldry, portraiture, and biographical information about their owners,” says Anne-Marie Eze, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the exhibition’s curator. “Though thousands were produced under the Republic, commissioni are intrinsically rare because only two copies of each were ever made: one deposited in the ducal chancellery and the other presented to the officer-elect.”
Based on new research into Isabella Gardner as bibliophile and the rare books she collected, Illuminating the Serenissima reveals hidden treasures of the collection which are ordinarily kept shut in bookcases in the museum’s Long Gallery and therefore off-limits to the public. The exhibition shows the evolution over three centuries of styles of illuminating and binding of commissioni through the finest examples from Gardner ’s collection of Venetian manuscripts.
“We are excited to reveal a seldom seen part of the Gardner ’s collection,” says Anne Hawley , the Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. “This exhibition not only boasts beautiful objects that are usually inaccessible to visitors, but further illustrates Isabella Gardner’s passion for Venetian art and history.”
Isabella Gardner acquired four of the books displayed with thirteen other Venetian manuscripts in 1903 from her friend Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), Harvard’s first professor of art history, a Dante scholar and expert book collector. Concerned that his cherished collection would be dispersed and the books taken apart for their lucrative illuminations and bindings, Norton sold them to Isabella Gardner whom, their correspondence shows, he believed was the only American collector cultivated enough to appreciate their artistic and historical value as a collection. “I am glad to think of the Manuscripts as in your possession,” wrote Norton to Gardner on the completion of the sale, “and safe from destruction by fire.”
Intact commissioni are rare in American libraries and museums, where single illuminated leaves or fine bindings without their pages are more commonly found. Kept closed in covered bookcases—and so protected from damaging exposure to light—for over a century, the Gardner Museum’s collection of commissioni is in a remarkable state of preservation. Just one object received conservation treatment in preparation for the exhibition: a rare eighteenth-century repoussé and chased silver binding with a depiction of Venice as Justice personified, which had never been cleaned since its arrival in the museum at the end of the nineteenth century.
“Cleaning the covers reduced grime and tarnish built up over at least one hundred years,” says Holly Salmon , Associate Objects Conservator at the Gardner Museum , who spent ten hours cleaning the upper cover and seal of the book. “Now the binding’s overall appearance is brighter and details of the beautiful silversmithing are more visible.”
In fact, Eze discovered a previously unnoticed maker’s mark on the binding’s covers, which will hopefully result in future identification of the unknown silversmith and other examples of his fine work.
The title of the exhibition, Illuminating the Serenissima, refers both to the use of luminous colors (especially gold and silver) to decorate the opening pages and bindings of the commissioni, and to the books’ enlightenment of the past glory of the Republic of Venice . The exhibition shows examples of the decorative styles and techniques of renowned Venetian illuminators and binders of the Renaissance, including Leonardo Bellini (active ca. 1443-1490), the T.° Ve. Master (active 1520s-1560s), and the Mendoza Binder (active 1518-1555), as well as by anonymous seventeenth and eighteenth-century masters.
“The production of commissioni ensured the continued practice of the arts of illumination and fine binding in Venice for over three centuries after the invention of the printed book,” adds Eze.
ILLUMINATION • The text of commissioni was written by official scribes on vellum (prepared animal skin) and authenticated by a ducal notary. From the 1460s, the opening page was decorated by hand with luminous colors, especially gold. The decoration in late fifteenth-century commissioni was restricted to the border and initial letters of the text, which were adorned with fantastical flowers, gold-leaf circles, and putti (nude winged children) supporting the recipient’s coat of arms. During the 1500s illumination expanded on the page, limiting text to an inscription of the Doge’s name. Borrowing subjects from monumental painting and sculpture, such as the leone andante (a full-length winged lion of Venice ’s patron saint Mark), illuminators created miniatures similar to painted, compartmentalized ceilings. From the late sixteenth century, writing disappeared from the opening page enabling illuminations to resemble small, framed devotional paintings with a portrait of the noble official, accompanied by his patron saint, adoring the Virgin and Child. This development further personalized commissioni and emphasized their owner’s piety.
BINDING • After the leaves of a commissione had been written and illuminated, they were sewn together and fastened to boards which were covered with damp leather. Covers were tooled with heated metal hand tools and stamps, often onto gold leaf, to produce gilded decoration. Finally, a bolla, or seal of the Doge, was attached to the binding to authenticate the contract within. The quality of binding in Venice increased with the city’s emergence around 1500 as Europe ’s most important center of printing and publishing, and continued to grow in extravagance until the fall of the Republic.
Sixteenth-century commissione bindings are characterized by their refined simplicity. Usually made of dark red or brown leather, their covers were decorated with frames surrounding medallions with the recipient’s name, date of appointment or coat of arms, and the leone in moleca (a frontal winged lion of St. Mark). Towards the end of the 1500s a more lavish style emerged, with irregularly-shaped, sunk panels and arabesque motifs, inspired by painted Islamic bookbindings. Seventeenth-century Venetian binders looked to French bindings and the contemporary fashion for wearing lace, using delicate fan shapes and filigree in their work. In the final decades of the Serenissima, velvet bindings with precious metal ornamentation were replaced by full metal covers with figures in relief.
After the fall of the Republic, many commissioni were broken up for their beautiful illuminated leaves and bindings, which could be sold separately to art lovers and bibliophiles for more money than an intact volume. On display are two pairs of empty covers—probably acquired by Isabella Gardner with their pages already missing—that reflect this regrettable practice.
Illuminating the Serenissima was organized by Anne-Marie Eze, who joined the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in May 2010 as the museum’s first Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow.
Highlights of the exhibition include:
T.° Ve. Master, Commissione of Doge Francesco Donato to Vincenzo Gritti as Lieutenant of Udine, 1546 • Paint and gold paint on vellum, height 24 cm by width 17 cm by depth 4 cm (closed) • On the illuminated opening page of the commissione are the Virgin and Child, the winged lion of St. Mark, a cartouche inscribed in Latin ‘I, Francesco Donato, by the grace of God, Doge of Venice’, flanked by saints (left) Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata and (right) Vincent Ferrer holding flames and a book, and two putti raising the arms of the Gritti family, within a border of antique armor and trophies.
This illumination refers to the institutions that governed Venetian life, in order of importance from top to bottom: piety, the state, the doge, and nobility. The Serenissima’s power is conveyed by the military motifs in the border. The male saints are the patrons and namesakes of the doge and Vincenzo Gritti, who received this book for his election as Lieutenant of Undine, a city in northeast Italy . The miniature is by the most skilled and fashionable illuminator of commissioni in sixteenth-century Venice . He takes his name from another illumination with equally graceful figures and luminous bold colors, which is signed ‘T.° Ve. painted this 1528’. The signature, however, was added later as a ploy to attribute the splendid work to the most celebrated painted of the period, Tiziano Vecellio (about 1488-1576), called Titian.
Unknown silversmith, Commissione of Doge Giovanni II Cornaro to Giovanni Bollani as Podestà of Chioggia, 1718 • Repoussé and chased silver covers, silver seal attached by cord and tassel of metallic and red silk thread, and silk spine, height 22 cm by width 18 cm by depth 3.5 cm (closed); circumference of seal is 3.5 cm • On the upper cover, enthroned beneath a canopy, is a female figure of Justice, holding a sword and scales, and wearing a doge’s horned hat. At her feet is a seated winged lion of St. Mark holding an open book inscribed in Latin ‘Peace be with you Mark, my Evangelist,’ and the Bollani family arms. The obverse of the seal shows St. Mark, dressed as a bishop and with an aureola of stars, blessing the doge.
This is a rare example of a commissione with the bolla, or ducal seal, still attached. The subject depicted on the seal emphasized that the doge’s authority was divinely ordained. The cover’s female figure of Justice, holding a sword and scales, and wearing a doge’s horned hat, symbolizes the Venetian government’s charge to preserve peace by means of justice. She reminded the commissione’s recipient, Giovanni Bollani, of his duty to administer justly at Chioggia , an important town at the southern limit of the Venetian lagoon. The covers were decorated using the metalwork techniques of repoussé, hammering the silver from the back to create a design in relief, and chasing, or tooling detail or ornament on the front. The unknown silversmith signed his sumptuous work with the initials AP.
St. Francis of Assisi presenting a Venetian senator to the Virgin and Child
Unknown silversmith, Venice as Justice, 1718 • Allegory of Venetian government.
Leonardo Bellini, Diedo family arms supported by putti, 1464 •Delicate palette and gold-leaf embellishment from border
Fragment of Manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci Unearthed in French Town Library
An autograph attributed to Italian High Renaissance Painter and Inventor Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), is presented to the media in Nantes December 6, 2010. The manuscript, written in 15th century Italian with words running from right to left, requires the use of a mirror to read. The manuscript was discovered after a journalist learned of the presence of the text in Nantes from a biography of the Italian painter. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe.
NANTES (REUTERS).- A long-lost fragment of manuscript by Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci has been uncovered in a public library in western France after lying forgotten in storage for nearly one and a half centuries.
The text, written from right to left in Da Vinci's trademark mirror-writing, was among 5,000 documents donated to the city of Nantes in 1872 by wealthy collector Pierre-Antoine Labouchere, and then left to languish in local archives.
It was only when a local journalist came across a reference to the document's location in a biography of the Italian master that the manuscript was finally tracked down.
"He was most probably writing in 15th-century Italian, and possibly in other languages, so it's now got to be deciphered," said Agnes Marcetteau, head of the Nantes library where the manuscript was found.
For the time being, however, the contents of the Da Vinci script -- a few lines on a yellowed scrap of paper -- remained a mystery and experts had yet to decipher the artist's brown scrawl, she said.
This is the second rare item uncovered in Labouchere's collection, after the discovery in 2008 of a never-before-seen score by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the major painters, scientists and thinkers of the Renaissance, and is best known in France for the Mona Lisa which attracts thousands of visitors each day to the Louvre museum in Paris.
In 1486, he designed a prototype for a flying machine with a rotating wing not unlike today's helicopters. (Reporting by Guillaume Frouin; Writing by Vicky Buffery, editing by Paul Casciato) © Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved.
Agnes Marcetteau (L), director of Nantes media library, and Jean-Marc Ayrault, Mayor of Nantes, present to the media "an autograph" attributed to Italian High Renaissance Painter and Inventor Leonardo da Vinci. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe.
NANTES [07.12.10] - Le fragment d'un manuscrit attribué à Léonard de Vinci a été redécouvert dans un fonds d'archives de la médiathèque de Nantes après 137 ans d'anonymat. En 2007, une partition inédite de Mozart avait déjà été retrouvée dans ce même fonds.
Un journaliste du quotidien Presse-Océan a redécouvert un fragment de manuscrit de Léonard de Vinci, dans un fonds d’archives conservé à la médiathèque de Nantes. Le document avait été authentifié à la fin du XIXe siècle lorsqu'il avait été donné à la ville par un collectionneur dans un fonds composé de 3 000 autres lettres et autographes ; depuis, il avait été oublié. C’est suite à la lecture d’une biographie consacrée à Léonard de Vinci par Serge Bramly, qui évoque la présence d’un fragment de manuscrit de la main du maître de la Renaissance dans une bibliothèque de Nantes, que le journaliste a commencé sa recherche.
Il a alors interrogé la direction de la médiathèque Jacques-Demy à Nantes qui, apparemment n’avait pas connaissance de la présence de cette pièce dans ses collections. Deux semaines plus tard le fragment aurait été retrouvé, après être resté 137 ans dans le fonds d’archives. Le manuscrit fait partie de la donation de Pierre-Antoine Labouchère, un peintre nantais qui séjourna en Italie au XIXe siècle. En 1873 il avait fait don de plus de 3 000 documents à la Ville de Nantes. En 2007 un fragment d’une partition inédite de Mozart avait déjà été retrouvé dans ce fonds. Le Fonds Labouchère va faire l’objet d’une étude approfondie.
Le fragment de Léonard devrait prochainement être exposé, mais il va auparavant être étudié par des chercheurs qui auront pour mission de déchiffrer les lignes écrites sur ce petit bout de papier de 10 centimètres sur 20, fait à base de coton de chiffon. Le texte, mêlant italien et dialecte lombard, est écrit de la main gauche et en sens inversé et donc illisible à l’œil nu. (www.artclair.com)
Attribué à Léonard de Vinci - Autoportrait (c. 1510-1515) - 33 × 21 cm - Turin, Royal Library (inv.no. 15571) - Source Wikimedia
Lucien de Samosate. Florence, [Lorenzo d'Alopa], 1496
Lucien de Samosate. Florence, [Lorenzo d'Alopa], 1496. photo Audap & Mirabaud - Paris
in-folio (330 x 235 mm) de 260 (sur 264) ff., reliure italienne du XVIIIe siècle vélin ivoire, dos à cinq nerfs plats orné de fleurons dorés, pièce de titre de maroquin vieux rouge.
RARE ET PRECIEUSE EDITION PRINCEPS DES DIALOGUES DE LUCIEN, ENTIEREMENT IMPRIMEE EN GREC ET PUBLIEE PAR JANUS LASCARIS.
Hain-Copinger, 10258*. - Polain, 2522 (un seul exemplaire détruit pendant la guerre). - Oates, 2441. - Indice dei incunabuli, 5834. - Proctor, 6408. - Brit. Mus. Cat., VI, 667. - Goff, L-320 (9 ex.). - BNF, cat. des inc., II, L-245 (3 ex.). - Picot-Rothschild, 1900. - Inc. in Dutch Libr., 3005 (2 ex.).
Lorenzo d'Alopa, de Venise, a imprimé en grec une huitaine d'ouvrages dans les dernières années du XVe siècle.
Il passe pour avoir été l'un des premiers typographes à utiliser des lettres capitales.
Lucien, né à Samosate en Syrie en 125 de notre ère, ne connaissait d'abord que sa langue natale.
Il apprit le grec et parcourut le monde romain jusqu'à la Gaule, où il enseigna. “ Mais devenu trop grec pour vivre longtemps loin de la Grèce (M. Croiset), il s'établit à Athènes vers 164 et y mourut vers 190.
Détestant, disait-il, les mensonges et les hâbleries, n'aimant que ce qui était vrai, beau et simple - en un mot tout ce qui méritait d'être aimé -, il se consacra alors aux dialogues satiriques, genre auquel il doit sa gloire.
Exemplaire incomplet des quatre feuillets A4, 3, 1-2 ainsi que du feuillet blanc final.
UNE TRES BELLE DECORATION PEINTE EN ITALIE AU XVE SIECLE ENCADRE LA PREMIERE PAGE.
D'abord une grande initiale A d'une hauteur de dix lignes, en or sur fond noir avec branchages entrelacés, s'inscrivant dans un portique soutenu par un chérubin.
Puis l'encadrement proprement dit, entièrement orné sur trois côtés de rinceaux filiformes avec fleurs stylisées ponctuées de petits disques dorés et d'oiseaux.
La marge supérieure est occupée en outre par un décor symétrique de deux cornes d'abondance, deux paons et de fleurs et de fruits ; la marge inférieure contient un grand cartouche recouvert de gouache bleue pour masquer une marque d'appartenance où l'on distingue cependant de part et d'autre les lettres IO et A(E )
LA MARGE DE DROITE TRES FINEMENT PEINTE REPRESENTE SUR PRESQUE TOUTE LA HAUTEUR UN LETTRE AUX LONGS CHEVEUX FRISES COUVERTS D'UNE TOQUE ASSIS DANS UNE CHAIRE ET LISANT UN LIVRE OUVERT SUR UN PUPITRE, FIGURANT ASSUREMENT LUCIEN LUI-MEME.
Les couleurs vives, variées, chatoyantes, juxtaposées avec raffinement désignent un artiste de premier ordre.
Des annotations en grec d'une main de l'époque se trouvent sur certaines marges d'un bout à l'autre du volume.
L'exemplaire, à grandes marges, est bien conservé.
Audap & Mirabaud - Paris. Vente du Mardi 16 novembre 2010. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 8 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris. Pour tout renseignement complémentaire, veuillez contacter la Maison de Ventes au 01 53 30 90 30 et au 01 48 00 20 16 pendant la vente et les expositions.
Album amicorum d'Hans Schuchmacher (Constantinople, 1587)
Album amicorum d'Hans Schuchmacher (Constantinople, 1587). photo Tajan - Paris
Charmantissime petit volume, dans une exquise reliure renfermant une des plus riches & anciennes collections de papier marbré turc. Estimation : 15 000 / 20 000 €
Superbe Album amicorum (Stammbuch) d'Hans Schuchmacher (1587), constitué de 174 feuillets de papier marbrés turcs (« ebru ») réunis dans une très belle reliure allemande ou italienne.
Reliure
Reliure en plein veau brun (114 x 155 mm) à large décor doré à l'orientale : large fer de milieu au centre des plats, bordé d'écoinçons et encadré d'une large arabesque entre deux filet; dos à nerfs orné de fleurons, muet; tranches dorées antiquées. Reliure allemande ou italienne de l'époque.
Composition : 174 feuillets de papier marbré turc.
Papier marbré
On distingue de nombreux types de papier marbré :
• papier marbré proprement dit, aux trois ou quatre couleurs : caillouté, marbré-veiné, veiné-caillouté, veiné-ombré, coulé; ainsi qu'un veiné, poché dans des cercles ou des étoiles.
• papier “silhouette” : à motifs floraux oseille, saumon, violette, gorge-de-triton (une trentaine de motifs).
• papier plain : brun, saumon, nuit, oseille, crême, brique, amaranthe, aurore.
Album
63 des 174 feuillets ont été annotés par les personnes rencontrées par Hans Schuchmacher (ou Schurmacher), qui est nommé aux feuillets 34, 54 v°, 67, 80 v°, 113, 124, 126, 141, 148, 152, 158, 171.
Ces feuillets de dédicace comprennent le plus souvent une devise latine, un polygramme & une dédicace.
On y trouve des Italiens (Vespasiano Casteleto de Nomi), des Allemands (Tobias Viescherz; Victor Rehdinger, 145; Johannes Büking Alsfeldianus Hassus, 152), des Bohèmes (Simeon Haiecius ab Haieck, 83), des Français (Daniel Cuvelier von Antorff, 34) & autres (Niklas Perea, 141).
Parmi ceux-ci, plusieurs sont connus par ailleurs : Victor Rhedinger (probablement de la famille de Nicolas Rhedinger)
• Siméon d'Hajec (cité comme étudiant bohème à Cambridge en 1581)
• Johannes Bücking (1531-1589), d'Alsfeld en Hesse.
L'itinéraire suivi est : Comoran en Hongrie (20 mai 1587)
• Constantinople (4-20 août 1587)
• Adrianopolis en Thrace (1er septembre 1587)
• Macédoine (5 septembre 1587)
• Philippopolis
• Bulgarie (13 septembre 1587)
• Raab en Hongrie (sans date)
• Vienne (15-29 octobre 1587)
• Styrie (2 novembre 1587)
• Florence (1er décembre 1587)
• Bologne (4 janvier 1588)
• Ferrare (mars 1588)
• Venise (20 novembre 1588).
Il s'agit vraisemblablement d'un album de voyage d'un étudiant ou du suivant d'un grand personnage. Hans Schuchmacher semble avoir projeté d'aller jusqu'en Égypte et à Jérusalem ( 141 v° & 130).
Les feuillets marbrés de ce Stammbuch (l'expression figure dans une dédicace, 163) furent probablement acquis en partie (papiers plains) en Hongrie, puis pour l'autre partie lors du séjour d'Hans Schuchmacher à Constantinople; ils furent ensuite reliés en Allemagne ou en Italie, à son retour.
Cet Album amicorum d'Hans Schuchmacher est largement connu depuis un demi-siècle.
Il est cité dans de nombreux ouvrages relatifs aux papiers marbrés turcs.
Il constitue un des plus riches recueils de papiers marbrés turcs, encore existant.
A ce titre, il est un extraordinaire témoignage de cet art.
L'un des tout premiers et des plus abondants témoignages des papiers marbrés, fabriqués en Turquie & en Hongrie dans la seconde moitié du XVIème siècle, et dont la mode et le savoir-faire furent importés à Venise, en Allemagne puis en France (où ils furent utilisés par le grand relieur Le Gascon dès le commencement du règne de Louis XIII).
Tajan - Paris. Vente du Mercredi 17 novembre 2010. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 10 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris. Pour tout renseignement, veuillez contacter Romain Monteaux-Sarmiento à la Maison de ventes au 01 53 30 30 30.
Livre d'heures par le « Maître de Liénard Baronnat » (Paris, 1500)
Livre d'heures par le « Maître de Liénard Baronnat » (Paris, 1500). photo Tajan - Paris
Très beau livre d'heures parisien des années 1500, complet de toutes ses enluminures, très frais dans sa reliure d'époque enrichie vers 1700 de figures en argent repoussé & de pierreries - Estimation : 80 000 / 100 000 €
Superbe livre d'heures sur parchemin, richement enluminé à Paris, vers l'an 1500, par le maître enlumineur qui travaillait pour Liénard Baronnat, conseiller du roi Charles VIII.
Dans sa reliure d'époque, recouverte vers l'an 1700 de figures en argent repoussé & de pierreries (béryls ).
Reliure: Reliure d'époque de veau brun (178 x 128 x 63 mm), resserrant 184 feuillets en cahiers non rognés, à tranches dorées.
Cette reliure fut recouverte, vers 1700, d'un velours rouge; sur chacun des plats, furent fixées deux grandes figures d'argent repoussé en partie dorées (saint Joseph & l'Enfant; la Vierge & l'Enfant) et quatre cabochons angulaires d'aigue-marine; fermoirs & nervures dorsales en argent.
Ces figures d'argent doré, très certainement de facture romaine, sont finement ouvragées.
Composition Texte écrit sur une seule colonne de 17 lignes, à l'encre brune, en caractères gothico-liturgiques. Lettrines champies d'azur & de carmin sur feuille d'or. Rubriques en azur, rouge & or.
Dimensions du feuillet : 166 mm x 112 mm.
Justification : 93 x 56 mm.
Collation (hormis deux feuillets blancs au début & à la fin, placés par le relieur)
• Deux cahiers de 6 feuillets, non lettrés (Calendrier)
• Neuf cahiers de 8 feuillets, lettrés A-I.
• Un cahier K de 6 feuillets.
• Onze cahiers de 8 feuillets, lettrés L-X.
• Un cahier de 4 feuillets, lettrés Y
• Un cahier de 2 feuillets, lettrés Y (5-6).
soit : 184 feuillets (et 2 feuillets blancs, initial & final).
Distribution liturgique
• Calendrier : 1 à 12
• Péricopes évangéliques : 13 à 18
• Prières à la Vierge : Obsecro te & O intemerata (forme masculine) : 19 à 25
• Heures de la Vierge : 26 à 90
• Les Sept Psaumes de la pénitence : 91 à 103
• Litanies : 104 à 108
• Heures de la Croix : 109 à 115
• Heures du Saint-Esprit : 116 à 120
• Offices des Morts : 121 à 164
• Quinze joies de la Vierge (en français) : 165 à 170
• Sept requêtes à Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ (en français) : 170 à 173
• Suffrages aux Saints : 174 à 184.
(saint Michel Archange, saint Jean-Baptiste, saint Jean l'Évangéliste,
saints Pierre & Paul, saint Sébastien, saint Nicolas, saint Antoine l'Ermite,
sainte Anne, sainte Marie-Madeleine, sainte Catherine, sainte Marguerite,
sainte Barbe, saint Claude, saint Étienne, saint Hubert )
Illumination
• 13 (a1) : Saint Jean à Patmos (grande enluminure)
• 14 (a2) : Saint Luc & le taureau (vignette enluminée)
• 16 (a4) : Saint Matthieu & l'ange (vignette)
• 18 (a6) : Saint Marc & le lion (vignette)
• 19 (a7) : Vierge à l'Enfant en gloire (vignette)
• 23 (b3) : Pietà (vignette)
• 26 (b5) : L'Annonciation à Marie (grande enluminure)
• 49 (e5) : La Visitation à Élisabeth (grande enluminure)
• 61 (g1) : La Nativité du Seigneur (grande enluminure)
• 67 (g7) : L'Annonciation aux bergers (grande enluminure)
• 71 (h3) : Les rois Mages (grande enluminure)
• 75 (h7) : La Présentation du Seigneur au Temple (grande enluminure)
• 79 (l3): La Fuite en Égypte (grande enluminure)
• 85 (k1) : Le Couronnement de la Vierge (grande enluminure)
• 91 (l1) : Le Jugement dernier (grande enluminure)
• 109 (n3) : La Crucifixion de Notre Seigneur (grande enluminure)
• 116 (o2) : La Pentecôte (grande enluminure)
• 121 (o6) : La Résurrection de Lazare (grande enluminure)
• 165 (u3) : La Vierge en majesté (grande enluminure)
• 170 (u8) : La Très-Sainte Trinité (grande enluminure)
• 174 (x4) : Saint Michel Archange (vignette)
• 174v (x4) : Saint Jean le Baptiste (vignette)
• 175 (x5) : Saint Jean (vignette)
• 176 (x6) : Saints Pierre & Paul (vignette)
• 176v (x6) : Saint Sébastien (vignette)
• 177 (x7) : Saint Nicolas (vignette)
• 178 (x8) : Saint Antoine l'ermite (vignette)
• 179 (y1) : Sainte Anne (vignette)
• 179v (y1) : Sainte Marie [Magdeleine] (vignette)
• 180 (y2) : Sainte Catherine (vignette)
• 182 (y40) : Sainte Marguerite (vignette)
• 182v (y4) : Sainte Barbe (vignette)
• 183 (y5) : Saint Claude (vignette)
• 183v (y5) : Saint Étienne (vignette)
• 184 (y6) : Saint Hubert (vignette)
soit :
15 grandes enluminures (80 x 60 mm environ).
21 vignettes enluminées (45 x 40 mm environ).
En outre, la marge extérieure de chaque page est enluminée de différents motifs floraux, fruttesques et parfois animés disposés dans des compartiments très variés, souvent géométriques.
Provenance: Ce livre d'heures fut écrit et enluminé à Paris pour une personne qui vénérait, probablement en raison de ses noms, les saints Claude (évêque de Besançon), Étienne (martyr) & Eustache (de Mâcon).
Aux alentours de l'an 1700, la reliure fut chargée de figures en argent et de pierreries, probablement à Rome.
Il parvint ensuite dans une bibliothèque russe, ainsi qu'en témoignent l'ex-libris et l'étiquette d'étagère apposés aux contreplats.
Il est jusqu'à nos jours conservé par un grand bibliophile européen.
Le peintre enlumineur
Grâce aux recherches de Madame Isabelle Delaunay (Échanges artistiques entre livres d'heures manuscrits et imprimés produits à Paris vers 1480-1500, thèse de doctorat de l'université de Paris IV, p. 275-288), nous pouvons maintenant reconnaître dans ce manuscrit la main du « Maître de Liénard Baronnat ».
Cet artiste, dont nous ne connaissons pas encore le nom, est désigné par ce vocable car c'est lui qui enlumina les Recherches sur le royaume de Naples, recueil constitué par un certain Liénart Baronnat, conseiller du roi Charles VIII & maître des comptes dans les années 1491-1500.
Stylistiquement, notre manuscrit peut être daté des années 1492-1494.
On y décèle des éléments stylistiques & iconographiques de ce Maître, comme le pendentif séparant l'ange de la Vierge dans l'Annonciation et que l'on retrouve dans trois livres d'heures conservés à la BN (Manuscrits latins 1168, 1373 & 13299).
L'enlumineur choisit également souvent la scène de la Résurrection de Lazare pour l'office des morts, comme il apparaît dans d'autres livres d'heures : BN Smith Lesouëf ms. 34 lat. 1168; Moscou Bibl. Lénine F. 256 n° 817.
L'admirable scène de la Vierge à l'Enfant entourée d'ange musiciens trouve un écho dans le livre d'heures de Moscou précédemment cité.
Les visages sont joliment modelés de rose & de gris et l'artiste a une palette agréable composée de bleu, gris, roses, vert & or.
On remarque la présence insolite d'une bergère dans l'Annonce aux bergers, scène peut être inspirée par la gravure de l'Annonce aux bergers publiée à travers les imprimés de Simon Vostre à partir de 1496.
Le choix de représenter le Jugement dernier aux Psaumes de la pénitence est rare dans l' uvre de ce Maître qui préfère souvent représenter à cet endroit le roi David en prière.
Après les suffrages courants, le même scribe et le même enlumineur ont ajouté, sur un dernier cahier, des suffrages à trois saints supplémentaires : saint Claude évêque de Besançon, saint Étienne martyr et saint Eustache de Mâcon (patron des chasseurs).
Il s'agit d'une pratique de personalisation du manuscrit au moment de l'achat, et on doit probablement y trouver l'écho des prénoms du commanditaire.
Cette pratique est également fréquente dans l' uvre du Maître de Liénart Baronnat (voir I. Delaunay, « Livres d'heures de commande et d'étal : quelques exemples choisis dans la librairie parisienne 1480-1500 », in L'artiste et le commanditaire aux derniers siècles du Moyen Age, sous la direction de Fabienne Joubert, Paris, 2001, p. 258, fig. 6).
L'activité parisienne de cet artiste se remarque dès 1485, date à laquelle il peint une miniature de saint Jean en prière dans un Office noté offert à la confrérie des Enlumineurs parisiens (Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 461).
Tajan - Paris. Vente du Mercredi 17 novembre 2010. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 10 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris. Pour tout renseignement, veuillez contacter Romain Monteaux-Sarmiento à la Maison de ventes au 01 53 30 30 30.
Sotheby's to Offer the Rochefoucauld Grail: Witness of the Legend of King Arthur
The Rochefoucauld Grail, in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum, c.1315-23. Lancelot about to behead Melyagans. Estimate: £1,500,000–2,000,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- It is the greatest romance of chivalry produced in the Middle Ages, and its themes of friendship, treachery, ambition, achievement and star-crossed tragic lovers form the foundations of much of our modern literature. The stories of the quest for the Holy Grail, of the Lady of the Lake, of King Arthur and his court at Camelot, and of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, captured the imaginations of generations to come, and have inspired some of the best-selling novels of our time. The Rochefoucauld Grail is from the 14th century, and on a scale which is as impressive as the text: some 200 cows would have been needed to produce the vellum sheets that make up the three monumental volumes, the whole embellished with some 107 jewel like illuminated illustrations – each one a work of art in its own right.
Dr Timothy Bolton, specialist in charge of the sale at Sotheby’s, said: “This is one of the principal manuscripts of the first significant medieval work of secular literature. It is a grand book, in a monumental format, with 107 miniatures, each a dazzling jewel of early gothic illumination. The subjects are almost entirely secular – a breathtakingly unusual thing at the time – with scenes of jousts, tournaments and battles, noble adventures and daring tests of strength and courage. The scenes often have a riotous energy, and often stretch beyond the boundaries of the picture frames, with lofty towers poking through the borders at the top, and figures tumbling out of the miniatures onto the blank page as they fall or scramble to escape their enemies.”
Estimated to sell for between £1.5 and £2 million* when it is offered in Sotheby’s sale of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures on Tuesday, 7th December 2010, the work has an illustrious provenance. Written and illuminated in Flanders or Artois in the early-14th century (circa 1315-23), it was probably produced for Guy VII, Baron de Rochefoucauld, head of one of the leading aristocratic families of medieval France, and representative of King Philip V of France in Flanders. The volumes appeared on the market in the early-18th century and passed to Sir Thomas Phillipps (d.1872), possibly the greatest modern collector of medieval manuscripts. Since then, the work has changed hands just twice, passing through the hands of the most eminent dealer of the 20th century to one of the greatest collectors of our day. The Rochefoucauld Grail ranks among the finest medieval manuscripts in private hands.
The text was extremely popular in its time (there are myriad translations into other European languages), because it offered a model of spiritual chivalric behaviour, a guidebook for a Christian courtly society, through which the whole gamut of human emotions could be experienced. It shows friendship and love as well as lust, treachery and sin, while the characters struggle with ambition, achievement and crushing failure. These are the emotions and challenges that give life to stories such as those of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the Lady of the Lake, Sir Lancelot’s tragic infatuation with Arthur’s wife, Guinevere, and the tales of the wizard Merlin.
The work is being sold by Mr J. R. Ritman for the benefit of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam.
The Stories and the Miniatures that Illustrate them:
• The Lady of the Lake carries Sir Lancelot as a baby down to her underwater castle. In the legend, Lancelot’s mother turns from the side of her dying husband to see her child being carried away by the mystical Lady of the Lake. Lancelot then grows up in an underwater world, to emerge later as the greatest knight of his day.
• Queen Guinevere and her maidservants lead a wounded Lancelot to safety. Married to King Arthur, Guinevere’s infatuation with Lancelot was mutual. This tragic love both inspired him to become the greatest knight, and ultimately bought about both their downfalls.
• Lancelot, having heard the false reports that Guinevere is dead, falls into suicidal despair and attempts to take his own life. Here, the other Knights of the Round Table who are meant to be watching over him, have fallen asleep, all except one who leaps up to stop him from fatally wounding himself.
• Joseph of Arimathea brings the Holy Grail to Britain, having walked across water to do so, the image, shows his supporters walking across his cloak on the water’s surface, while the non-believers are left to drown.
The Rochefoucauld Grail, in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum, c.1315-23. King Arthur fighting the saxons. Estimate: £1,500,000–2,000,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
"Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500" @ J. Paul Getty Museum
Jean Fouquet, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, about 1460. Tempera on parchment, 39.8 x 29.5 cm. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Germany, Ms. Cod. Gall. 6
LOS ANGELES, CA.- History played such an integral role in defining national identity in France throughout the high Middle Ages that some of the finest illumination of the period is located within the covers of history manuscripts. On view in the Exhibitions Pavilion at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, November 16, 2010 through February 6, 2011, Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500 highlights one of the greatest chapters in the history of French art and the development of the French nation, when heroic tales of bygone eras came to life in lavish illuminated manuscripts. These images would allow the French to understand their present and plan for their future by celebrating an epic past.
Imagining the Past in France is the first major exhibition devoted to the theme of history in manuscripts, focusing on the use of images to enhance and influence the reader's experience of the text. This monumental exhibition brings together more than 70 objects from the collections of over 25 museums and libraries across Europe and the United States.
"As always with an exhibition of this magnitude, we are greatly indebted to the lenders, in the United States and abroad, who are graciously sharing many of their most treasured history manuscripts, several of which have never before been lent outside of their home countries," explained Thomas Kren, acting associate director of collections and senior curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. "We're particularly delighted that, through this exhibition, one set of manuscripts will be reunited for the first time since they were separated over 500 years ago."
Dr. Elizabeth Morrison, curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the exhibition's co-curator added, "Imagining the Past will bring together many of the most important history manuscripts in the world by the greatest French illuminators of the Middle Ages, including an extraordinary 13th-century copy of the legend of the Holy Grail-over a foot and a half in height; the Great Chronicles of France made for King Charles V in the 14th-century; and a priceless manuscript of Boccaccio's Concerning the Fates of Illustrious Men and Women, painted by the greatest illuminator of the mid-15th-century, Jean Fouquet."
The exhibition will also feature select works of ivory, tapestry, and metalwork that demonstrate how stories from these rare history manuscripts leapt into other artistic forms.
Imagining the Past in France
In a country governed by elected officials it is difficult to fathom the concept of the divine right of kings whereby the only qualification for power was genealogy. To support their claims to power, rulers and nobleman commissioned monumental-in terms of both scale and quality-historical manuscripts with striking narrative illuminations that helped them imagine themselves as the natural inheritors of the success of ancient conquerors. Concentrating on dramatic and action-filled tales of heroic battles and moral dilemmas, epic figures-Hector of Troy, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, and even Christian icons like the Virgin Mary-were celebrated in extensive visual narratives that invariably presented them and their adventures in medieval guise. By depicting iconic moments from the past in contemporary costumes and settings, the present was imbued with the historical importance of the past. Moreover, the fact that illuminations were paired with historical texts in French rather than Latin-which had dominated the written word for centuries-made the narratives even more accessible. Rulers and members of the nobility often commissioned these manuscripts for personal prestige or political gain, while aligning the nation of France with these historical antecedents encouraged French nationalism.
Exhibition Overview
The main concepts of the exhibition are encapsulated in the first gallery through a few extraordinary examples of manuscripts made for powerful members of the aristocracy or royalty, including the famous Bible historiale of Charles V (The Hague, Museum Meermanno) and a copy of Pierre Salmon's Dialogues, with a stunning frontispiece depicting Charles VI (Geneva, Bibliothèque de Genève).
The next three sections consider the different types of history popularized through illuminated manuscripts of the period: Ancient History, Christian History, and Medieval History. Because the modern conception of history differs quite drastically from the medieval, these sections will examine the visual construction of history in diverse texts in French, including bibles, romances, biographies, chronicles, and ancient and medieval histories. Highlights will include a lavish 13th-century book of Arthurian Romances (Morgan Library, New York), a lavish 14th-century copy of the Mirror of History featuring over 700 illuminations (Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, and Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal), and a spectacular 15 th-century manuscript of Boccaccio's Concerning the Fates of Illustrious Men and Women (Geneva, Bibliothèque de Genève).
The exhibition will then move into a section focusing on the Nine Worthies, a series of the nine greatest heroes of history divided among three historical eras, first popularized in the early 14th-century. The tri-partite division into Ancient, Biblical, and Medieval heroes reflects the divisions of the exhibition. The section includes one of the earliest copies of Jacques de Longuyon's Voeux du paon (Vows of the Peacock), the text in which the concept of the Nine Worthies was originally introduced (New York, Morgan Library).
The exhibition culminates in a last section devoted to how these historical narratives penetrated medieval culture to such a great extent that they began to migrate to other countries and into other media. Stories originating in French manuscripts appeared as far away as England, Italy, and Spain, and were carved in ivory, woven into tapestries, and even sewn in pearls on money-purses. Examples will include a chronicle concerning the Trojan War from El Escorial's Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo, the Louvre's great tapestry telling of the miracles of Saint Quentin, the Metropolitan Museum's celebrated aquamanile depicting Aristotle and Phyllis, and the Cluny Museum's delicate ivory mirror back with a scene from the legend of Tristan and Isolde.
The manuscripts and other objects featured in Imagining the Past in France represent an unprecedented gathering of some of the finest historical works produced in medieval France. Immensely successful at the French court and created by the most prominent artists of the day, these pieces served as both sources of adventurous excitement and disseminators of propaganda. In appealing to the authority of the past, they inherently reflected the values and belief systems of the French nation in a way that supported and validated its very existence.
Despite the rarity and light sensitivity of these priceless objects, colleagues at institutions in America and abroad have generously shared their masterpieces, many of which are national treasures. The Getty Museum is profoundly grateful for the more than 70 objects being generously lent by 25 institutions, including the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich; Bibliothèque de Genève, Geneva; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, New Haven; Bibliothèque Nationale de France , the Bibliothèque d l'Arsenal, and the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the British Library, London; Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, the Hague; the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morgan Library and Museum, New York; National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg; and Universiteitsbibliotheek, Leiden. In addition, masterworks are being lent by distinguished private collections. The exhibition will also include six exceptional manuscripts and leaves from the Getty's own collection.
Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500 is organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and curated by Dr. Elizabeth Morrison, curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum, in conjunction with Dr. Anne D. Hedeman, Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a 376-page catalogue ($80 hardcover, $49.95 paperback) with 192 sumptuous color illustrations and detailed entries for each object in the exhibition. In addition, the catalogue will include a series of essays on subjects ranging from the role of the vernacular in history manuscripts and the blurring of genres such as romance and history, to the origins of secular illumination and the contributions to the development of history illustration by individual artists. Catalogue contributors include Elizabeth Morrison, Curator of Manuscripts at the Getty Museum; Anne D. Hedeman, Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana; Gabrielle Spiegel, Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University; Keith Busby, Professor of French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Joyce Coleman, Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma; Élisabeth Antoine, Curator in the Département des Objets d'art at the Louvre; R. Howard Bloch, the Sterling Professor of French at Yale University; and Erin Donovan, Research Assistant in the Department of Manuscripts at the Getty Museum.
This landmark exhibition will take place only at the Getty and will be the subject of a symposium open to the public (reservations required) on Feb. 3-5, 2011. Consult the Getty website for lectures and other related programs.
Simon de Hesdin (French, died 1383) and and Nicolas de Gonesse (French, about 1364 - ?) and Second Master of the Cité de Dieu of Mâcon (French, active about 1470) and Master of the Psalter of Jean le Meingre III (French, active about 1470) and Master of the Munich Boccaccio (French, active 1470s) and Maître François (French, active about 1460 - 1480), Faits et paroles mémorables des Romains, about 1470. Tempera colors and gold on parchment. Dimensions: Leaf: 38 x 27.5 cm (14 15/16 x 10 13/16 in.) Justification: 24 x 16.6 cm (9 7/16 x 6 9/16 in.). Closed: 38 x 27.5 cm (14 15/16 x 10 13/16 in.) Accession No. EX.2010.1.9. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands, Ms. 66 B 13
Rare Needlework Book Cover from the Book of Beauty, 1896 to Sell @ Bonhams
A Pre-Raphaelite needlework book cover from 'The Book of Beauty'. Photo: Bonhams..
LONDON.- A pre-Raphaelite needlework book cover designed for The Book of Beauty: A Collection of Beautiful Portraits with Literary, Artistic and Musical Contributions by Men and Women of the Day, edited by Mrs F Harcourt Williamson and published by Hutchinson & Co in 1896, is to be sold at Bonhams, Knowle as part of its sale of Costume and Textiles on 27 July 2010. It has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £800 – 1,200.
Of pale green satin embroidered with the figure of a Pre-Raphaelite style maiden holding white lilies and a mirror, surrounded by flowers and foliage in blues, greens and pale pinks and couched gilt thread borders, worked with the initials F.H.W for Mrs. F. Harcourt Williamson, and the title 'The Book of Beauty', with plain panel to the left to cover the spine and reverse of the book, decorative panel 42.5 x 33cm (entire piece 42.5 x 75.5cm).
'The Book of Beauty: A Collection of Beautiful Portraits with Literary, Artistic and Musical Contributions by Men and Women of the Day' edited by Mrs. F. Harcourt Williamson was published by Hutchinson & Co., London in 1896 in a deluxe edition of 300 copies. The book features portraits of society women and their children, poems, short stories, comic sketches, music and summaries of society events, featuring contributions from Rudyard Kipling, Lord Curzon, Sir John Millais and J. M. Whistler.
The National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum hold a copy of the book with identical dimensions.
Only 300 copies of the book, which includes contributions by Rudyard Kipling, Lord Curzon and Sir John Millais, were produced, and this is the only known embroidered cover. The National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum has a copy of the book, but without a cover like this.
The book cover once belonged to the vendor’s uncle, an interior designer. It was inherited by the vendor’s father, who subsequently passed it onto the vendor. It has spent this whole time at the bottom of a bin bag which explains its exceptional condition.
Another lot expected to attract attention is a black leather handbag that belonged to the Queen Mother. Estimated at £100 – 200, the bag was donated by the Queen Mother to a raffle to raise money for a new wheelchair for Invergordon Hospital in 1977.
A black wool and silk blend Alexander McQueen trouser suit worn by Anne Robinson for The Weakest Link is expected to fetch £800 – 1,000. Robinson put the suit up for auction in aid of Children In Need.
Christie's to Offer Valuable Collection of Illuminated Manuscripts
A Book of Hours opulently illuminated for King François I of France by the Master of François de Rohan is expected to realise £300,000 to £500,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010
LONDON.- Christie’s announce that they will offer the first part of an extensive selection of exceptional medieval and renaissance masterpieces on 7 July 2010 in London. The Arcana Collection: Exceptional Illuminated Manuscripts and Incunabula Part I is an outstanding private collection which has been assembled over the past 3 decades and which includes personal prayer books made for Royals, Bishops, Aristocracy and other important patrons from the 13th century to the 16th century. These include King François I of France, a leading patron of Leonardo da Vinci and the first owner of his masterpiece The Mona Lisa, as well as King Henry IV of France and Elizabeth de Bohun, great grandmother of King Henry V of England.
The collection will offer 48 lots with an overall estimate of £11 million to £16 million, and will be on public exhibition for the first time, alongside Christie’s July auction of Old Masters and 19th Century Art from 3 to 7 July 2010.
Some of the most highly priced items in the inventories of renaissance kings and princes were illuminated manuscripts – handwritten books with illustrations and decorations painted in brilliant colours and gold. It was not simply the cost of materials and labour – their visual richness makes each book the equivalent of a gallery of paintings – but it is their aesthetic quality that led to these books being so highly valued, for the artists who painted them were often the leading artists of their day. Such books were among the most eloquent demonstrations of the wealth and refined taste of their owners.
Books of Hours, prayerbooks intended for private use, were the most popular type of illuminated manuscript and they are splendidly represented in the Arcana collection. Because the Book of Hours were designed for personal use, their content and appearance could be tailored to an individual’s preference, reflecting his or her concerns, interests and taste. Their purpose was not solely religious – the finest were clearly meant to visually delight both the owner and everyone to whom they were shown: they were meant for display and as demonstrations of status and discernment. Owners were often identified and represented in these books, their portraits showing them richly dressed in the height of contemporary fashion.
Highlights of the collection include:
• A Book of Hours opulently illuminated for King François I of France by the Master of François de Rohan is expected to realise £300,000 to £500,000. François I, celebrated as one of the greatest princely patrons of the Renaissance, commissioned art and architecture of the highest quality attracting to his court the leading artists of his day. Leonardo da Vinci was eminent among them and spent his final years in the king's employ. After Leonardo's death François I acquired what is probably the world's most famous painting, The Mona Lisa, from the artist's estate.
• Executed in England in the 14th century, the Hours and Psalter of Elizabeth de Bohun, Countess of Northampton and great-grandmother of King Henry V of England, are expected to realise £2,000,000 to £3,000,000. These were lent by a previous owner, William Waldorf Astor, to the important loan exhibition in New York 1883 that raised funds for a pedestal for The Statue of Liberty.
• A manuscript Bible produced in Italy in the middle of the 13th century with extensive and exquisite painted illustration. It appears to have been made for the use of a convent of Dominican friars - but the borders include diverting genre scenes and fantastical creations far from the routine religious illustrations that might be expected. The death of Theodoric Borgognoni (c.1296) is recorded in the Calendar and he may have commissioned the work: not only a Dominican friar and Bishop of Cervia he was one of the most significant and innovative surgeons of the medieval period. This Bible carries an estimate of £2,500,000 to £3,500,000.
• The sumptuous Epistres d'Ovide, the earliest translation into French Ovid’s Heroines, was made for Anne of Brittany, Queen to two Kings of France, Charles VIII and Louis XII, and mother of the wife of a third - Francois I. (estimate: £500,000 to £800,000)
• The first edition of Boccaccio’s On Famous Women (estimate: £250,000 to £350,000) was printed at Ulm in 1473, and is also a masterpiece of German woodcut illustration. This copy was formerly owned by W.E. Gladstone, Hawarden Castle.
• The first edition of Pliny’s Natural History in Italian (estimate: £250,000 to £350,000) is a masterpiece of early typography, printed at Venice by Nicolas Jenson in 1476, and exquisitely illuminated for the Bolzani family by the Master of the Seven Virtues.
• The Cauchon Hours was made in the middle of the 15th century for a noble couple from Rheims, who are portrayed as a knight in armour and his elegantly robed lady. The miniatures are accompanied by enchanting vignettes, both reflections of their daily surroundings and engaging inventions. All are represented with delicacy and verve in a light bright palette to make the manuscript a masterpiece of medieval charm (estimate: £800,000 to £1,200,000).
• One of the most celebrated books of the Italian Renaissance: the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (£220,000 to £260,000) to be offered at Christie’s in July is the copy originally owned by the most famous bibliophile of all time, Jean Grolier, and subsequently by Earl Spencer.
The Cauchon Hours was made in the middle of the 15th century for a noble couple from Rheims, who are portrayed as a knight in armour and his elegantly robed lady. The miniatures are accompanied by enchanting vignettes, both reflections of their daily surroundings and engaging inventions. All are represented with delicacy and verve in a light bright palette to make the manuscript a masterpiece of medieval charm. Estimate: £800,000 to £1,200,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010.
Sumptuously Illustrated Medieval Manuscript—The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry @ Metropolitan Museum of Art
Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 30r, The Annunciation. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1).
One of the most beautiful manuscripts in the world is the lavishly illustrated medieval prayer book known as the Belles Heures (Beautiful Hours). It was created by the Limbourg Brothers—three of the greatest illuminators in Europe—for one of the most famous art patrons of all time, Jean de France, duc de Berry (1340–1416). The son, brother, and uncle to three successive kings of France, Jean de France commissioned luxury works in many media—from chalices to castles—without regard for cost, but is best remembered for his patronage of manuscripts. Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg were in their teens when he selected them to create a sumptuous Book of Hours for his private prayers, and he allowed the young artists rare latitude in designing the work.
The exhibition is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Michel David-Weill Fund.
Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 1r, Ex Libris of the Duke de Berry by Jean Flamel. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1) "The manuscript known as the Belles Heures has been a treasured highlight of The Cloisters—the Met's branch museum devoted to medieval art and architecture—since 1954," commented Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In it are many magnificent illustrations of scenes from the Gospels and the lives of the saints, as one would expect in a book of private prayer. But also contained within this one manuscript are more brilliantly preserved paintings from the first decade of the 15th century north of the Alps than can be found collectively on the walls of all the major museums in Europe and North America. The number of images amazes us; their sheer beauty never fails to astonish. The great achievement of the Limbourg brothers—who were startlingly young when they created this manuscript—is the unique combination of clarity, luminosity, drama, and breathtaking technique with which they ornamented every page. The Belles Heures was truly the laboratory for the development of their artistic vision." Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 142r, Crucifixion with Christ Offered Vinegar. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1). Exhibition Overview Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 91v, Jean, duc of Berry, in Prayer. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1). The brothers Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg were born in the duchy of Guelders in the city of Nijmegen, today in the Netherlands. About 1398, Herman and Jean were apprenticed to a goldsmith in Paris. Their training was to have lasted six years, but was suspended—probably in November 1399—"because death was then about in Paris" (perhaps referring to the Black Plague). The Limbourgs were hired soon thereafter as illuminators by Philip the Bold, the duke of Burgundy. After Philip's death in 1404, his brother Jean de France engaged them and retained their services for the rest of their lives. (The Limbourg Brothers died within months of one another in 1416.) The Belles Heures is one of three manuscripts that they are known to have worked on, yet it is the only complete manuscript attributed to them that was also entirely illuminated by them. Though small in scale—the book measures slightly less than 9–1/2 by 7 inches (23.8 x 16.8 cm)—the illustrations are monumental in impact, and its youthful artists succeeded in creating a masterpiece of luminous color, astonishing detail, and enormous appeal. Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 20r, Angels Carry the Body of St. Catherine to Mount Sinai. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1) At the heart of a Book of Hours—the most popular genre of privately owned books of prayer in the Middle Ages—is the series of devotions known as the Hours of the Virgin. These include psalms, hymns, canticles, and prayers that were meant to be read during the eight canonical hours of the day. Many Books of Hours were illustrated, a factor that certainly contributed to their popularity. In the Belles Heures, each of the Hours of the Virgin is introduced with a glorious illumination, such as the Annunciation at Matins and the Flight into Egypt at Compline. Although piety may have been a factor for many patrons who commissioned such books, the sheer love of beauty was certainly the motivation for others. Jean de France already owned several Books of Hours when he commissioned the Belles Heures, and its range of illustrated stories was unprecedented. Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 63r, The Flight into Egypt. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1) The Belles Heures of Jean de France contains all the typical components of a French Book of Hours along with seven additional highly ornamented and richly illustrated sections. These insertions were the framework within which the Limbourg Brothers marshaled light, color, and realistic detail in the service of storytelling. Created over a three- to four-year period from 1405 to 1408/9, the Belles Heures is composed of 224 folios, or leaves, of the highest-quality vellum (calfskin) so skillfully prepared that each folio is translucent, and the text and decoration on one side can be seen from the reverse. Each page sparkles from the generous application of gold leaf in the border, and an unusually wide range of colors—including the brilliant and valuable ultramarine blue originating from Afghanistan—dazzle the eye. Prior to the presentation of all the book's illuminated pages at the Metropolitan, a selection of the folios was shown at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 223v, The Duke of Berry on a Journey. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1) Publications and Related Programs The related publication is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund. Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 17v, Saint Catherine of Alexandria's Wounds are Anointed by the Angels. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1)
The exhibition is arranged thematically, according to the sequence in which the sections appeared in the bound manuscript. It begins with 12 calendar pages, each of which is illustrated with a typical activity for the month at the top of the page and the related sign of the zodiac at the bottom. Other sections include readings from the Gospels, the Hours of the Virgin, the Hours of the Passion, and the Suffrages of the Saints, as well as pictorial histories of Saints Catherine, Jerome, and others. The exhibition ends with a prayer for travelers, in which the duc de Berry himself is portrayed on horseback leaving his castle with his retinue.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated monograph. Published by the Metropolitan Museum and distributed by Yale University Press, the book is suitable for non-specialists as well as scholars, and is available in the Museum's bookshops and on the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org/store ($65, hardcover). 
Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duc of Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France, by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Folio 74v, Procession of Flagellants. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum. 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1)
