In his self-portrait of 1558, the most famous illuminator of his day, Simon Bening ( Book of Hours, 2015.706), visualized his claim to social status above the rank of artisan through his self-confident signature and relatively refined costume ( Self-Portrait, 19). In an Adoration of the Magi ( 48.149.15) of about 1520, the powerful illusion of spatial depth and vivid re-creation of the long journey of the magi were intended to sustain continued viewing and private meditation. Fouquet’s miniature The Right Hand of God Protecting the Faithful against Demons (1452–60), which contains an accurate view of contemporary Paris, demonstrates his extraordinary ability to infuse miniature paintings with a striking sense of breadth, detail, and geometrical structure ( Hours of Étienne Chevalier, 19).ĭespite the escalating popularity of printed books in the sixteenth century, many of Europe’s rulers and aristocrats continued to commission books of hours for private devotion. Nonetheless, Marmion’s miniature of the Holy Virgins Greeted by Christ as They Enter the Gates of Paradise ( 19) displays a refined, muted color scheme of whites and pastel shades that is comparable to the pale tonalities in his oil painting The Lamentation ( 1975.1.128). This required a different approach, for illuminators worked in egg tempera on parchment, in contrast to the oil medium used by panel painters. 1425–1478), who was employed at the French court, worked both in books and on panel. A number of artists, such as Simon Marmion, active in Valenciennes, or Jean Fouquet (ca. Oil paintings, so highly esteemed in our day, achieved a status similar to manuscripts only in the later fifteenth century. Throughout the fifteenth century, lavishly illuminated manuscripts were highly prized items, and important books were frequently given as diplomatic gifts, or to celebrate dynastic marriages. The illuminated frontispiece of the duke’s Chroniques de Hainaut, a secular chronicle, depicts the ceremonial presentation of the book to the duke by its scribe and translator, thereby commemorating not only the duke’s literacy and wisdom, but also his political role as legitimate successor to the counts of Hainaut. It included many secular histories and romances, subjects that broadened the pictorial repertoire of illuminators in the fifteenth century.
From the 1440s onward, he built up a significant library totaling nearly a thousand titles by his death. As the principal miniature of the manuscript, the Annunciation displays a luxurious border of Italianate acanthus leaf.Ī second important phase in book production was stimulated by the patronage of the Valois duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, who inherited the passion of his house for expensive illuminated books. These traits are shown in the scenes of the Crucifixion and Annunciation from their Belles Heures ( 54.1.1) of around 1406–8/9. Their work exemplifies the courtly style prevalent in various European centers around 1400, which combined elegant, sinuous figures, decorative color, and selective realism in pictorial details such as animals, insects, or plants. The city of Paris was renowned as a major center of illumination in the early fifteenth century, yet by the 1440s its status was rivaled by vigorous book production in the great urban centers of the Burgundian Netherlands such as Bruges, Ghent, and Valenciennes.Īmong the most famous illuminators in the history of the medium are the Limbourg brothers, Herman, Paul, and Jean, who were employed by the extravagant collector Jean, duke of Berry, a prince of the royal French house of Valois. In its structure, layout, script, and decoration, every manuscript bears the signs of the unique set of processes and circumstances involved in its production, as it moved successively through the hands of the parchment maker, the scribe, and one or more decorators or illuminators.Įarly manuscripts were made in monasteries, but by the twelfth century an urban bookseller, called a libraire, coordinated the various stages of production. Unlike the mass-produced books of our time, an illuminated manuscript is a unique, handmade object.
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