Master of Catherine of Kleve

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Saint Ambrose surrounded by a frame of shells

The illuminator who painted the book of hours of Katharina von Kleve , Duchess of Geldern around 1430, is called Master of Katharina von Kleve (also Master of Katharina von Cleve ) .

The artist, who is probably not known by name in Utrecht or Nijmegen in the Netherlands, created 157 half and full-page illuminations with richly decorated frames for the private prayer book . The work is one of the most important examples and not only because of the large number of his pictures a high point of Dutch painting art of the 15th century. The book, which has meanwhile been divided into two separate bodies, is now in its entirety in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (ms. 917 with 63, ms. 945 with 94 miniatures ). The prayer texts are in Latin with additional explanatory texts, for example on the feast days of saints. The main part of the prayers is dedicated to the Virgin Mary , in whose adoration Catherine herself is depicted in one of the pictures. She is shown there with the coat of arms of her husband Arnold von Egmont, Count von Guelders. The book, which consists of 714 pages and is bound in a handy format, may have been commissioned as a splendid wedding present and then completed some time after Katharina's wedding. The sides are approximately 192 × 130 mm.

The master of Katharina von Kleve is a painter in an era of Dutch book illumination, in which under the influence of a French style and works from the Burgundian heyday of this art form some of the highest quality book illumination of the Gothic in the Netherlands were produced. The small-format book of hours and its pictures that invite contemplation can be seen together with the beginning prayer performance of the Devotio moderna , in which private prayer comes to the fore in the Netherlands. The book of Katharina can be seen in a similar way to the Milanese Book of Hours, which is assigned to the van Eyck brothers. Their influence can also be found in the style of the miniatures in Katharina's Book of Hours. The pictures of the master of Katharina von Cleve show a detachment from the formulaic representation of religious scenes, which was otherwise customary in Gothic panel paintings of the time, towards the more free embedding of these scenes in a well-observed contemporary environment.

Above all, the seemingly random scattering of detailed images of smaller botanical and biological elements such as leaves and shellfish or fish, flowers and butterflies, fruits and vegetables, for example in the edges of the images, make nature an unusual religious object for the time. Representations of ecclesiastical, courtly and also rural surroundings make both luxury and everyday life a further point of contemplation on life in this world and the hereafter.

The master of Katharina von Kleve is based on the courtly style of French painting of his time. However, he developed a typical independent narrative style and his depictions of a hell monster anticipate the work of Hieronymus Bosch . The depiction of a scene from hell is very unusual, and although scenes from the Last Judgment are depicted in other books of hours of the time, depictions of hell are rarely found there.

  • Katherine of Cleve in Adoration of the Madonna and Child. From the Book of Hours of Katherine of Cleve, ca.1440

  • Christ enthroned. From the Book of Hours of Katherine of Cleve, ca.1440

  • Saint Ambrose surrounded by a frame of shells

  • Hellmouth in a picture from the Book of Hours of Katherine of Cleve, ca.1440

literature

  • John Plummer (ed.): The miniatures from the book of hours of Katharina von Kleve . Berlin 1966.
  • Friedrich Gorissen: The Book of Hours of Katharina von Cleve. Analysis and comment . Berlin 1973.
  • Ingo F. Walther, Norbert Wolf: Codices illustres. The most beautiful illuminated manuscripts in the world. 400 to 1600. Taschen, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-8228-4747-X .
  • Saskia van Bergen et al .: The Book of Hours of Katharina von Kleve. Stuttgart 2009. (Catalog for the exhibition Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen 2009/2010 and Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2010)

Web links

Commons : Book of Hours of Katharina von Kleve  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Hours of Catherine of Cleves
personal data
SURNAME Master of Catherine of Kleve
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anonymous illuminator
DATE OF BIRTH before 1430
DATE OF DEATH after 1450