Jean Bourdichon (about 1457 - 1521, Tours)
Book of Hours, about 1515-1520
Ink, colors, and gold on parchment, 16.5 x 10.5 cm (6 1/2 x 4 1/8 in.)
This vibrant book uses ink, colors and gold on parchment. The book includes thirteen pages featuring the life and death of Christ that are brightly painted with gold accents for halos and crowns. The paintings are vertical and rectangular, and shown with a golden, arched border, decorative columns on each side and a scroll below with Latin text. The scenes include the annunciation of Mary, the birth of Christ, the visit of the three Magi, Mary, Joseph and the baby Christ fleeing to Egypt, the Crucifixion and the assumption of Mary. Other paintings are included on pages with Latin text and depict apostles and saints, often shown with symbols that are associated with them, such as St. Catherine with a large spiked wheel and St. Barbara holding a tower with three windows and a palm, which is the symbol of a martyr. The first letter of each paragraph is in gold paint and set in a colored block.
Long Gallery
Commentary
Court painter to four kings of France, Jean Bourdichon was best known for manuscript illumination of exquisite refinement and cosmopolitan sophistication. His books of hours mark the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Such richly decorated prayer books were favored by royalty, nobility, and the rich merchant classes who continued to prefer manuscripts to printed books as aids to their daily devotions.
The Book of Hours in the Gardner Museum has remained virtually unstudied. A late work by Bourdichon, it is characterized by ambitious Italianate frames which enclose the main illuminations. The book nonetheless remains intimate and private, the delicately colored scenes compelling close inspection.
Source: Myra Orth, "Book of Hours," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 135.
The Book of Hours in the Gardner Museum has remained virtually unstudied. A late work by Bourdichon, it is characterized by ambitious Italianate frames which enclose the main illuminations. The book nonetheless remains intimate and private, the delicately colored scenes compelling close inspection.
Source: Myra Orth, "Book of Hours," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 135.