Book of hours by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
The book of hours by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese ( English Farnese hours ) is a prayer book from 1546. It points to the Italian late Renaissance . This book of hours , created by Giulio Clovio for a church prince, still follows the typology of the Middle Ages in its pictorial arrangement : the events announced in the Old Testament come true in the New .
description
The 14.5 × 10.5 cm prayer book, created in Italy in 1546, follows the Roman rite . It contains 114 sheets and 28 miniatures with figural borders .
The book of hours has been in the collection of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City since 1903 (call number M. 69 ).
Miniatures
On the double page shown above, Adam and Eve stand opposite the shepherds with the forbidden fruit with the Christ child and his mother. Theologians saw Mary as the new Eve, through whose son the evil that had come into the world by the serpent that tempted Eve would finally be overcome. The Fathers of the Church made this message clear to even the simplest of minds by pointing out that EVE reads from backwards to AVE (= greeted), the first word of the prayer that recalls the proclamation by the Archangel Gabriel : “Ave, Maria, gratia plena ".
The two miniatures juxtaposed are in an architectural frame that is packed with nude figures in a posture comparable to Michelangelo, whose white bodies contrast with the bronzed atlases as pedestals on which they stand. The shepherds , who, in contrast to the rich gifts of gold , myrrh and frankincense from the three kings, only bring modest sheep as gifts, represent a masterful group. In contrast, the picture on the opposite page contains only two figures, the completely naked figures of Adam and Eve in that moment , before their eyes were opened and they hastily covered their nakedness with fig leaves .
Behind them rise the trees of life and knowledge , but only the tree of Eve, entwined by the serpent with a woman's head, bears the forbidden fruit. A parrot sits on Adam's tree and watches the scene. In happy ignorance the animals rest and eat in the garden, they do not yet know anything about the suffering that will soon befall them and the human race .
The most impressive page in the Farnese book of hours and one of the most striking in a book of hours is the double page in the litany with a Corpus Christi procession to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Tiber and the Castel Sant'Angelo with St. Michael with the accuracy of a topographical representation.
On the left is the old St. Peter's Basilica with its wide staircase that leads to the atrium and the three-story blessing loggia , above the tallest tower in Rome. The two sides are connected by the fortified wall to the passetto , which enabled direct access to Castel Sant'Angelo from the Vatican . The Popes hurried through this secret passage to safety when danger threatened: the Borgia Pope Alexander VI. 1495, when Charles VIII and his French army invaded the Holy City; the Medici -Pope Clement VII. during the pillage of Rome by the imperial troops of Charles V 1527th
Less than twenty years after this disaster, Clovio painted this peaceful, radiant Corpus Christi procession . A long line of cardinals , bishops , clergymen , Swiss guards , altar servers and others accompanied Pope Paul III. (Alessandro Farnese), who sits in his sedia gestatoria and holds the ostensorium , the monstrance with the host . Above it, the clouds part to reveal visions of the Holy Trinity and the Virgin Mary looking down on the procession. Putti in the clouds throw flowers at the devotees.
Giulio Clovio
Vasari's biography of " Giulio Clovio , Illuminator" begins with the words: "For many centuries, and perhaps also for centuries to come, there has not been a painter of small things who was more outstanding than Giulio Clovio and in this respect exceeded all others." Contemporaries equated him with Raphael , Michelangelo and Titian , a view that is exactly the opposite of today's. Today it is believed that the decline of book illumination as an art form began when artists began to treat the miniature like an easel or panel painting .
A look at Farnese's Book of Hours shows that Clovio actually gave up the unity of miniature, border and text in favor of the idea of the Renaissance of pictures in frames . Its sides look like architectural facades with the short texts as succinct inscriptions. But how beautifully these confrontations of scenes from the Old and New Testament are arranged, fully physically appealing Michelangelo-like figures with their different shades of white on the bodies and bronze on the statues.
The text is written in the "cancellaresca formata" script, narrow, rounded letters with abbreviated up and down strokes, which fit seamlessly into Clovio's paintings. The writer was Francesco Monterchi, secretary of Pier Luigi II Farnese , Duke of Parma , father of Clovio's patron Cardinal Alessandro.
Clovio painted in the greatest manner in the smallest of spaces and thus provided a great conclusion to the tradition of the medieval book of hours.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Giorgio Vasari: Le Vite de 'più eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori, steps e di nuovo ampliate da Giorgio Vasari con i ritratti loro e con l'aggiunta delle vite de' vivi e de 'morti dall'anno 1550 infino al 1567 . Giunti, Florence 1568, 3 vols.
- ^ John W. Bradley: The Life and Works of Giorgio Giulio Clovio , miniaturist. Quaritch, London 1891 (reprint: Hissink, Amsterdam 1971, ISBN 90-6025-114-8 ( Scripta Artis Monographia 14)). .
literature
- 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. 162-168.
Web links
- Entry on Farnese hours in the Morgan Library catalog (with links to digitized pages)
- General introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours, Laudes