Book of hours of Anne de Bretagne
The Book of Hours of Anne de Bretagne, Queen of France ( Heures d'Anne de Bretagne ), also known in German as the Book of Hours of Anne of Bretagne , is a work by the illuminator Jean Bourdichon which was completed by 1508 and, as a lay devotional book, is one of the most elaborately furnished books of hours ever created. When Anne died in 1514, she left a reputation for piety , art patronage and a love of luxury . This characterization is confirmed in her Grandes Heures .
description
- Liturgy of Rome . France , Tours or Paris , 1500–1508. 30 × 19.5 cm, 238ff
- 12 calendar - illustrations , 49 full-page miniatures , 2 pages crest jewelry , over 300 borders , many ornamental initials .
- Bibliothèque nationale , Paris, ms. lat. 9474
Miniatures
The flight into Egypt for Vespers reveals the sweetness of Bourdichon's style. The lovely features of the Holy Family , including the precocious expression of the child holding an apple , contrast with the difficult situation. Framed by blue rocks reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci , the miracle of the sower is depicted, as in her mother's book of hours . Anna is portrayed in prayer in the manuscript, she is wearing a gold robe with fur-trimmed sleeves and a Breton cap. She is presented more beautifully here than in others, Bourdichon presented a state portrait of the Queen, with her book of hours with richly decorated edges and open clasps in front of him, with the necessary flattery. The queen is represented with her patron saint, the elderly St. Anna , St. Ursula with an arrow and the coat of arms of Brittany, as well as St. Helena , mother of Emperor Constantine .
The angel's announcement of the Christ nativity to the shepherds is one of the greatest pages of Jean Bourdichon, which identifies him as a master. In this night scene, the contrast of the red-hot fire in the foreground and the blue landscape in the background add to the dramatic effect. While their comrades slept, three shepherds watched by the fire. In the distance is a second fire, an ingenious element, with a shepherd seated there. Only the angel in the light-filled gap between the clouds is a stereotypical figure; but his finger pointing to the sleeping Bethlehem, where the Christ Child lies, connects him directly to the dense scene below.
A special feature of the Grandes Heures is the botanical accuracy with which the flowers and plants are depicted in the borders and provided with both Latin names and French names.
Dated in Blois on March 14, 1507/08 in the name of the Queen of France, her treasurer is instructed to pay her esteemed "Bourdichon" the sum of 1050 livres tournois for the "rich and lavish illumination of her great book of hours ..." This was only found in 1868 Money order proves Bourdichon as the author of the book of hours (previously it had long been attributed to the miniature painter Jean Poyet).
Anne de Bretagne
Anne de Bretagne was the heir to Francis II , the last independent Duke of Brittany , and daughter of his second wife Margarete de Foix . After her father's death in September 1488, she was not yet twelve years old and an orphan . With the exception of her younger sister Isabeau (who died in 1490), she had no close relatives. As Duchess of Brittany, she was the most important heir to France. Whoever married her would receive the last significant fiefdom independent of the French crown. Her father's preferred candidate was Archduke Maximilian of Austria . The thirty-one year old heir to the empire has been a widower since the death of his wife Maria of Burgundy in 1482. The contract of Vergers forbade her to marry without the consent of the French king. Charles VIII's answer was to invade the duchy, but a solution was looming: the marriage between Anna and Karl, only in this way would Breton rights and customs be fully preserved.
It was contractually regulated that after the king's death and in the event of their remarriage, it must be the successor to the French throne or his heir. On January 8, 1499, at the age of twenty-two, she married Louis XII. and became queen of France for the second time . From the series of pregnancies during their second marriage, two daughters remained alive. Gradually it became clear that the dictates of politics, which Charles VIII imposed on her, would also take effect in the case of her older daughter Claude (* 1499). Anna died on January 9, 1514, a few weeks later Claude was married to her cousin Franz von Orléans-Angoulême , who became King of France on January 1, 1515 after the death of her father.
Anna's heart was sent to Brittany for rest on her instructions.
Editions
- Léon Curmer (ed.): Le Livre d'heures de la reine Anne de Bretagne, traduit du Latin et accompagné de notices inédites par M. l'abbé Delaunay. 1841 (ie 1861).
See also
literature
- The book of hours of Anne de Bretagne, Queen of France. In: John Harthan: Books of hours and their owners. German translation by Regine Klett. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1977, ISBN 3-451-17907-5 , pp. 126-133.
- Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 186–191 ( The Book of Hours of Anne of Bretagne ).
Web links
- Heures d'Anne de Bretagne. Ms. déposé au Louvre. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52500984v/f11.item (complete digital copy)
- General introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours, Laudes
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jules Camus: Les noms des plantes du livre d'heures d'Anne de Bretagne. In: Journal de Botanique. Volume 8, (Paris) 1894, pp. 325-335, 345-352, 366-375 and 396-401.
- ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. 1998, pp. 187-190.
- ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. 1998, p. 186 f.