Très Belles Heures de Notre-Dame
The Très Belles Heures de Notre-Dame and its extensive later sequels , known as the Turin-Milan Book of Hours , belonged to a book of hours written on parchment and illuminated , the parts of which from around 1380/1390 to the middle of the 15th century in Paris or Bourges and in Flanders came into being. It is regarded as a major work of Gothic book illumination and also marks the beginning of modern painting north of the Alps due to some miniatures ascribed to Jan van Eyck .
The name of this manuscript can easily be confused with that of the “Très Belles Heures des Duc de Berry” (also “Brussels Hours”) made for the same client and kept in Brussels.
Origin and history of ownership
The book of hours has a complicated history of origins and, as it was torn apart into several parts, experienced a diverse fate. The parchment manuscript was started around 1385 on behalf of the Duke of Berry . André Beauneveu or the workshop of Jacquemart de Hesdin , in which other top works of medieval book illumination were also created, including the Très Riches Heures , were suggested for the side scheme and the overall layout . Today the Master of the Parament of Narbonne is seen more as a guiding hand. The manuscript came unfinished into the hands of the client, who kept the largely completed part, which is already referred to in the Duke's inventories as Très Belles Heures de Notre-Dame . He passed the rest on to his treasurer Robinet d'Estampes around 1412. The finished pages later came to the Parisian Rothschild Collection , whose owners donated the book to the French National Library in 1956.The remainder, which remained incomplete, came from Robinet d'Estampes around 1420 into the possession of Duke Wilhelm VI. from Holland or one of its relatives. This part was decorated with miniatures in different phases by several Flemish artists of the 15th century. Jan van Eyck was very likely among them . This complex was also divided once more: A volume found its way via the House of Savoy (traceable there since 1479) to the Royal Library in Turin in 1720 , where at some point four sheets, which are now in the Louvre , were stolen from it, the book but burned himself in 1904. Another part of the manuscript came to Turin in 1935 from the possession of Prince Gian Giacomo Trivulzio of Milan , but was acquired by the Museo Civico .
The miniatures of the first part of the "Très Belles Heures"
The first part of the book of hours, kept in Paris, now contains 25 miniatures on 126 sheets of 28.4 × 20.3 cm. A distinction was made between the work of four different painters. Among them is the miniaturist, who is referred to by the emergency name “Meister des Paraments von Narbonne ” (after the grisaille paintings on an altar hanging in the Louvre ). This master, who is familiar with the Sienese painting of the 14th century, has recently also been identified with Jean d'Orleans, who can be traced back to 1361-1407. The arrangement of the picture pages with a large scenic representation, a figuratively decorated initial and a narrow picture bar at the foot of the page ( bas-de-page ), all framed by a tendril border, remains binding for the later created and separated parts of the whole. Around 1404 to 1409 other artists were working on the book, who can only be named and differentiated using emergency names. The last miniatures in this part of the book were probably made by the famous Limburg brothers around 1413 .
- Miniatures from the Très Belles Heures de Notre-Dame, Paris, Bourges (?), Around 1380–1410
Annunciation
Master des Paraments of Narbonne,
Paris, BnF NAL3093, f.2
Angels hold Christ, removed from the cross,
Meister des Paraments von Narbonne,
Paris, BnF, NAL3093, f.84
Funeral prayers,
Master of the Paraments of Narbonne,
Paris, BnF, NAL3093, f.87
The miniatures in the "Turin-Milan prayer book"
The fragment, essentially a missal , which was formerly Milanese and is now in Turin , comprises 126 sheets with 28 miniature pages. The part of the book with the prayers of the saints burned in 1904 was similarly extensive. After 1420 at least eleven different artists had worked on the further furnishings by the middle of the century, a division ("hand divorce") that comes from Georges Hulin de Loo, who had assigned the letters of the alphabet to the anonymous painters.
The seven pages, the images of which are assigned to a “hand G”, are of particular importance in terms of the history of science and art. They are among the most significant and astonishing works in all of European painting history. The depictions of atmospherically animated landscapes, realistically seen interiors with their everyday details, precisely observed times of day and perspective means used effectively point to the further development of the visual arts in the 16th and 17th centuries. The probability that Jan van Eyck was active here is hardly questioned today. Probable, but not quite so certain, is the assumption that it was made around 1420 to 1424. The earlier identification of the "hand H" with that in the Sources barely tangible person of Hubert van Eyck is today mostly doubted. Less important painters continued to work until the middle of the century, perhaps Barthélemy d'Eyck .
- Miniatures from the Turin-Milan prayer book
Jan van Eyck: Birth of John the Baptist. Turin, National Library, f.93.
Jan van Eyck: funeral mass. Turin, National Library, f.116
Jan van Eyck: Finding the Cross . Turin, National Library, f.118
Jan van Eyck: Wilhelm VI. (?) prays on the beach. Milan Book of Hours, before 1417. Formerly Turin, (burned), f.59v
Crucifixion. "Hand H", 1st half of the 15th century. Turin, National Library, f.48v.
Holy Confessor,
Paris, Louvre , single sheet from the Milan Book of Hours.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The work dealt with here is to be distinguished from the manuscript Très Belles Heures de Jean de France !
- ↑ Erwin Panofsky: Early Netherlandish painting . S. 45, 47 f . ,
- ↑ There listed as NAL [= Nouvelle acquisition latine ] 3093 exhibition catalog European art around 1400 , exhibition of the Council of Europe, Vienna 1962, cat. No. 106, p. 169f.
- ↑ Inv. No. RF 2022-2025, On the provenance of the Louvre sheets ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Catalog of the exhibition Meister Francke , Hamburg 1969, p. 72.
- ^ Catalog of the exhibition European Art around 1400 , Vienna 1962, p. 169.
- ^ Millard Meiss: French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry. 2 volumes. London / New York, 1969.
- ↑ fols. 225 and 240. Durrieu, plates 25-27.
- ^ Georges Hulin de Loo: Heures de Milan. Brussels 1911.
- ^ V. Herzner: Eyck, Jan van. In: Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon , Vol. 35, 2002, pp. 514-515.
- ↑ Eberhard König and François Boespflug: Les "Très Belles Heures" du duc Jean de France, duc de Berry. Le Cerf, 1998, p. 267.
Facsimile editions
- E. König (Ed.): Très Belles Heures de Notre-Dame. Facsimile edition of the manuscript in the BnF , 2 volumes. Lucerne 1992.
- JH Marrow et al. (Ed.): The Turin-Milan Book of Hours. Facsimile edition of the manuscript Ms. 47 of the Museo Civico Turin. 2 volumes. Lucerne 1994–1996.
literature
- George Hulin de Loo: Heures de Milan. Brussels 1911.
- P. Durrieu: Les Très belles Heures de Notre Dame du Duc Jean de Berry. Paris 1922.
- Max J. Friedländer , From Van Eyck to Bruegel. (1st edition 1916), Phaidon, 1965.
- Erwin Panofsky : The old Dutch painting. Cologne 2001, (translation of the English edition from 1953), pp. 46, 48, 49, 187, 232–244.
- Albert Châtelet: Early Dutch Painting, Painting in the Northern Netherlands in the fifteenth century. Montreux, Lausanne 1980, ISBN 2-88260-009-7 .
- Albert Châtelet: Jan van Eyck enlumineur. Strasbourg 1993.
- Millard Meiss: French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry. 2 volumes. London / New York, 1969, passim, cat. P. 337.
- Eberhard König and François Boespflug: Les "Très Belles Heures" by Jean de France, by Berry. Le Cerf, 1998, ISBN 2-204-05416-X .
- V. Herzner: Eyck, Jan van. In: Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon , Vol. 35, 2002, pp. 514-515.
- Ingo F. Walther, Norbert Wolf: Codices illustres. The most beautiful illuminated manuscripts in the world. 400 to 1600. Taschen, Cologne et al. 2005, ISBN 3-8228-4747-X , pp. 234–241.
