Book of Hours (Angers)

Artist/Maker

DatesMade: Made ca 1460

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w: Mått 12,3 x 8,8 cm

Inventory numberNMB 1664

AcqusitionGift of Gustaf VI Adolf and the Friends of the Nationalmuseum 1952

Other titlesTitle (sv): Tidebok (Angers) Title (en): Book of Hours (Angers) Label (sv): Tidebok (Angers): Den helige Franciscus stigmatisering (fol. 12v - 13) Label (en): Book of Hours (Angers): The Stigmatization of Saint Francis (fol. 12v - 13) Label (sv): Tidebok (Angers): Pietà (fol. 45v – 46) Inventory title (sv): Livre d´heures Original title: Horae ad usum andegavensem

DescriptionDescription: NMB 1664 A Book of Hours from Angers. [Angers, 1440-1460] Catalogue raisonné: NMB 1664 A Book of Hours from Angers. [Angers, 1440-1460] Physical Description MATERIAL: Parchment. BINDING: Dark green leather binding with gold tooling from the 1800s. DIMENSIONS: 172 x 88 mm(pages)/159 × 124 x 47 mm (binding). NUMBER OF LEAVES: 174ff. RULING: 15 lines of text. LANGUAGE: Latin and Middle French. SCRIPT: Gothic textura. RUBRICATION: Rubrics in red. Text Fol. 1-12: Calendar with Saint Julien (27th Jan.), Saint Eutrope (30th Apr.), Saint Maurille (13th Sep.) and Saint Gatien (19th Dec.). Fol. 13: Office for Saint Francis. Fol. 14-20: Lectio Evangelium. Fol. 23-54: Diverse prayers and suffrages. Fol. 55-104: Hours of the Virgin Mary. Fol. 106-124: Penitential psalms. Fol. 125-159: Office of the Dead. Fol. 160-174: Obsecro te and O intemerata with suffrages. Decoration There are nine large miniatures illuminated by three artists (hands A, B and C), as well as various capitals and marginal decorations. Fol. 13r This miniature shows the stigmatization of Saint Francis. (Hand A). Fol. 23r: This miniature shows the Crucifixion at the moment when Christ is pierced with a spear by Longinus. (Hand B). Fol. 46r: This miniature shows the Pietà. (Hand B). Fol. 55r: This miniature shows the Annunciation. Here the Angel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary in an elaborate tent with the interior decorated with stars. Two angels open the tent flaps to show the scene inside. (Hand C). Fol. 66v: This miniature shows the Visitation. Here Mary visits her relative Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth touches Mary’s pregnant stomach and feels the movement of Jesus. Behind the two women is a rocky and mountainous landscape. (Hand C). Fol. 89v: This miniature shows the Adoration of the Magi. Here the Virgin Mary sits on a throne while the Three Magi approach the Christ Child that sits on her lap. (Hand C). Fol. 96r: (missing). Fol. 106r: This miniature shows King David repentant. (Hand C). Fol. 125r: This miniature shows a funeral. A priest, aided by his assistant, is sprinkling holy water on a corpse wrapped up in a shroud and lying on a bier. Three mourners look on. (Hand C). Fol. 126r: This miniature shows the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist with Christ on Calvary. (Hand C). Fol. 170r: This miniature shows the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. (Hand C). Provenance 1. Made in Angers between 1440 and 1470. Primary part made in 1440s. the secondary added part (f 23-54) some decades later, in the 1460s. 2. Owned by the known bibliophile H. Harvey Frost in the 19th century. 3. Purchased by the Nationalmuseum in 1952 from Maggs Bros, London through the intermediary of H Mellgrens Bokhandel, Gothenburg. Financed through gifts to king Gustav VI Adolf at his 70th birthday. Exhibited 1. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Gyllene böcker. Nyförvärv och nyupptäckter, December 1987-March 1988. Commentary This Book of Hours was illuminated by three artists, with the miniature of St Francis by Hand A possibly taken from another manuscript. During the occupation of Paris (1422-1436) by the English in the Hundred Years War, the French capital, for a period, lost its dominant position as the centre of book illumination in France. Other centres of manuscript illumination in the provinces south and west of Paris became more dominant. One of these was in Angers, the capital of the Duchy of Anjou. Angers had previously been the home of the Rohan Master’s workshop (see NMB 1906). The main part of the NMB 1664 manuscript was made there in c. 1440 and illuminated by Hand C. A smaller part (fol. 23-54), illuminated by another artist, Hand B, was added in c. 1460. Nordenfalk (1979) in communication with John Plummer and Eberhard König determined that Hand C also illuminated a Book of Hours now Angers, Bibliothèque Municipale, S. M. 108. A further parallel, possibly by the same artist can be found in the Crucifixion scene now Cleveland, Museum of Fine Arts, 1926.244. This scene was illuminated c.1435 in either Angers, Nantes, or Poitiers (W. M. M. 1963). A third artist, Hand C, illuminated the St Francis image in a style that reminded Nordenfalk of the Boucicaut Master’s light filled landscape illuminations. Bibliography Abel, Ulf, and Nils Göran Hökby (eds.), Gyllene böcker. Nyförvärv och nyupptäckter (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1987), no. 58, p. 55. Nordenfalk, Carl, Bokmålningar från medeltid och renässans i Nationalmusei samlingar (Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1979), no. 28, pp. 104-107. Sandgren, Eva Lindqvist, Illuminated Manuscripts in Swedish Collections, https://www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/resultList.jsf?dswid=7830&p=1&searchType=EXTENDED&sortString=creationYear_sort_asc&noOfRows=10&af=%5B%22ARCHIVE_ORG_ID_facet%3A67%22%5D&query=&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22HOST%22%3A%22alvin-record%3A471052%22%7D%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D W. M. M., ‘Gothic Art 1360-1440’ in The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 50, No. 7 (1963), 174-215, p. 204. Research project 2022-2023, Illuminated Manuscript, Christian Etheridge, Art Historian.

Exhibited

Collection

Geographical origin

MaterialParchment, Gouache