Master of the Marguerite d'Orléans

The medieval illuminator who painted the book of hours of Marguerite d'Orléans, the daughter of Duke Louis of Orléans , around 1429/30 is referred to as the master of Marguerite d'Orléans ( Fr. Maître de Marguerite d'Orléans) . A painter, probably from Rennes , had begun painting the book and finished the part of the calendar. Then the master of Marguerite d'Orléans took over the further development. The painter's work was essentially edited by König. The painter's knowledge of compositions by the Boucicaut master is striking , which is particularly evident in the book of hours of the Marguerite d'Orléans , and although it has not yet been possible to identify him in a Parisian production of the 1420s, he may belong to the same generation of Painters like the master of Harvard Hannibal , who worked with the workshop of the Boucicaut master in Paris.

Early works

For the first time, the master of Marguerite d'Orléans can be grasped in a Livre des secrets d'histoire naturelle , which was written by his colophon in Bourges after 1428 . The finely washed, unframed pen-and-ink drawings of the manuscript on the one hand make it look like a quickly produced minute and on the other hand fit into a tradition of outstanding illustration projects of the 15th century, which begin with the Valencian rose novel and continue to the René court in the middle of the 15th century d'Anjous have worked. According to König, two other manuscripts come from the early phase of the painter in Bourges : a Boccaccio in Chantilly for Prigent de Coëtivy and a copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France , which has a good chance of having been made for Charles VII during his exile in Bourges . Both manuscripts are so closely related in their furnishings, the hand of the scribe and the decor that they were probably created at the same time. Shortly afterwards, the eponymous piece, the Marguerite d'Orléans' Book of Hours , would have been created and the painter would have migrated west.

Angevin phase

While in Rennes the painter of the Book of Hours of Françoise de Dinan is a very concrete successor to the Book of Hours of Marguerite d'Orléans in Brittany, the painter will have come from Angers beforehand . From the Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry , who at the time owned by Yolande d'Aragon were and also in 1430 at the same time from the Rohan Master were processed, he would so the composition of St. Catherine may have come to know that he is the only direct citation in the book of hours of the Marguerite d'Orléans processed. In any case, he will have returned there in the 1450s to paint Marie de Rieux's Book of Hours . The closeness to the Jouvenel master and his workshop, which the master of Marguerite d'Orléans seems to have had a lasting influence on until Fouquet's return from Italian, was emphasized again and again .

One of the latest works by the master of Marguerite d'Orléans are the Grandes chroniques de France , which are now kept in Châteauroux and which are very likely also made in Angers . Some of the miniatures were separated from the manuscript at an unknown time and are now in Paris. He worked on the manuscript together with the painter Arthurs III de Richmont , who is named after an Arbre des batailles in Paris.

The late phase: Poitiers?

Another book of hours in Paris led research to suspect the painter's late creative phase in Poitiers . The book of hours, set up for use in Paris, is a collaboration between the master of the Marguerite d'Orléans , the master of the Munich Legenda aurea and the master of Poitiers 30 , who was the most important representative of the regional school of Poitiers in the second half of the 15th century applies. A book of hours for the use of Poitiers in the Vaticana was identified as the master's latest work and led to the assumption that the master of Marguerite d'Orléans had ended his career in Poitiers. New finds such as the master's unfinished book of hours in Valence or the Marie de Belleville's book of hours in Austin (HRC 8), however, raise the question of whether the painter might not have essentially worked in Angers .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Paris, BnF, Ms. lat. 1156B
2. ↑ König 1982, 1991 and 2002.
3. ↑ today in 3 volumes in Paris, BnF, Ms, fr. 1377-9.
4. ↑ Valencian Rose Novel
5. ↑ König 1991 tries to prove the connection of individual motifs between the rose novel in Valencia, BU, Ms. 387 and the border decoration in Latin 1156B. It has been proven that the manuscript must have been in Angers around the middle of the century - presumably in the possession of René d'Anjou - where it served as a model for the Geneva painter Boccaccio . B. in New York, PML, M. 461. In addition, in the 3rd volume of the copy from 1428 (on fol. 6) an acanthus initial in the style of the Geneva painter Boccaccio was added
6. ^ Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes , Chantilly, Musée Condé, Ms. 858.
7. ↑ Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 2605.
8. ↑ Rennes, BM, Ms. 34.
9. ↑ today divided between Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland (Depot: Blairs, Catholic College, Ms. 23); New York, PML, M. 190; Paris, BnF, Ms. lat. 1170 and Tours, BM, Ms. 217, which is now localized to Angers.
10. ↑ Châteauroux, BM, MS.5 and Paris, BnF, Cabinet des Estampes, Add. 133-4.
11. ↑ Paris, Bibl. De l'Arsenal, Ms. 2695, the colophon dates the manuscript to 1450, cf. Porcher 1955, No. 289 and König 1982, p. 87
12. ↑ Paris, BnF, Ms. Rothschild 2534, cf. König 1982, passim and König 1991, passim.
13. ↑ Rom, BAV, Cod. Rossiano 119. Although the Roman book of hours is based on compositions by the Orléans master, with the exception of the Annunciation, no further miniature should be considered an autograph work, cf. König 1991, p. 100f.

literature

• Anne D. Hedeman: The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France, 1274-1422 , Berkeley 1991
• Eberhard König: Illumination around 1450. The Jouvenel painter, the painter of the Geneva Boccaccio and the beginnings of Jean Fouquet , Berlin 1982.
• Eberhard König: Les Heures de Marguerite d'Orléans. Reproduction integrale du calendrier et des images du manuscrit latin 1156B de la Bibliotheque nationale, Paris , Paris 1991.
• Eberhard König: The Provost Book of Hours. The master of Marguerite d'Orléans and book illumination in Angers , Ramsen and Rotthalmünster 2002.
• Eberhard König: The Book of Hours of Margaret of Orléans. Commentary on the facsimile edition . Quaternio-Verlag, Lucerne 2013.
• Jean Porcher (ed.): Les manuscrits à peintures en France du XIIIe au XVI siècle , exhib.-cat. Paris 1955.