Master Hugo

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Master Hugo: Moses and the Jews . Illumination, approx. 1135–1140

As Meister Hugo ( English Master Hugo ), an English artist of the 12th century is known in art history. He was active as an illuminator mainly in Bury St. Edmunds in England. There he painted a Bible manuscript in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Edmund during the reign of Abbot Anselm between 1121 and 1148 on behalf of the sacristan Herveus. Hugo are also further assigned to plastic works of art. His name and some of his works are known from the annals of the monastery.

Life of the master

Master Hugo was not a monk, but probably a traveling artist. Like several other artists of his time, he was employed in the monastery, probably for several years, as he is mentioned several times in the chronicles. Master Hugo is the oldest artist in England who is still known by name.

Master's style

Master Hugo's book paintings based on Byzantine art are said to have had a strong influence on the painters who followed him.

Works of the master

In addition to illumination, other works of art in St. Edmund are ascribed to Master Hugo ; z. B. he has demonstrably cast bronze doors there. A carved walrus ivory cross believed to have come from St. Edmunds and now in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has also been attributed to him by some experts.

The Bury Bible

The manuscript, illuminated by Master Hugo and known today as the Bury Bible, has been in the library of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, England, since 1575. It is an important example of Romanesque book illumination from England during the Norman period . Only the first part of the original two-volume work has survived. Some of the six pictures, which were probably originally more, are painted on separate pages of parchment and then integrated into the work. 42 painted initials have been preserved.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ T. Arnold (Ed.): Gesta sacristarum - Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey . London 1892, Volume 2 pp. 289-96
  2. ↑ Master Hugo . In: Art Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford 2002 (online 2010 edition)
  3. ^ E. Parker McLachlan: In the Wake of the Bury Bible: Followers of Master Hugo at Bury St. Edmunds . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 42, (1979), pp. 216-224
  4. ↑ G. Zarnecki, J. Holt, T. Holland (Ed.): English Romanesque Art . London, 1984 (exhibition catalog of the Hayward Gallery )
  5. ^ CM Kauffmann: The Bury Bible . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 29 (1966). P. 62ff.
  6. ↑ see also EC Parker: Master Hugo as Sculptor: A Source for the Style of the Bury Bible . In: International Center of Medieval Art (Ed.): Gesta, Vol. 20, No. 1 Essays in Honor of Harry Bober (1981), pp. 99-109
  7. ↑ EC Parker, CT Little: The Cloisters Cross. Its Art and Meaning (Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art). New York, NY 1993
  8. ↑ so z. B. in German at Katholisches Bibelwerk (ed.): The Bible. Standard translation. Special edition of the Stuttgart Bible of book illumination with masterpieces of medieval book art . Stuttgart 2004
  9. ^ Corpus Christi College, Cambridge CCCC M 2
  10. ^ CM Kauffmann: The Bury Bible . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 29 (1966). Pp. 60-81
  11. ^ CM Kauffmann: Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190. Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles . London, Boston 1975, pp. 86ff.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Master Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Illuminator of the Middle Ages, active in England
DATE OF BIRTH before 1121
DATE OF DEATH after 1148