Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent online lecture from Geoff Nuttall looking in detail at the “Tres Riches Heures” of the Duc du Berry. The talk marked an exhibition at the Musee Conde in Chantilly which will only be the second time the pages have been displayed since being rediscovered in the 1850s. The manuscript was a large book of hours by the Limbourg brothers (Herman, Paul and Jean) and was left unfinished at the death of the patron in 1416. The first half of the morning looked at the Duc du Berry, focusing on his role as a patron. We looked in detail at the palaces, chapels and fortresses he built on his lands which are shown in the wonderful illustrations of the labours of the month in the manuscript. The second then looked at the work of the brothers highlighting other work done by them, a bible for Philip the Bold and a smaller book of hours for Berry. He placed them within the art of the period both in France and Italy before looking at the specific style of this work and where some of the ide...

Small but sumptuous exhibition at the British Library on the use of gold in books and manuscripts. It covered 17 languages, 20 countries, many religions and the period from 5th century to 1920s. I like that they left the techniques to the end and didn’t let them dominate. There were some fabulous items. I was mainly drawn to Western works as I understand what I’m looking at more. My highlight were a letter to Richard II by Philippe de Meziers including a portrait of him receiving the document, a portrait of Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, and a beautiful Virgin from an Annunciation by Jean Bourdichon for Louis XII. Of the non-Western items I loved a Lives of the Buddha in which he appeared in gold in his different guises so there were gold horses and elephants, treaties embossed on gold from India and some beautiful Qur’ans including one with the earliest known gold-tooled binding. Closes 2 October 2022 Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard    

Fabulous online course from ARTscapades looking at Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts. Lead by Sally Dormer, Director of the early years V&A course, over two weeks we covered over 1000 years from the 4th to the 15th century however this was cleverly broken up to give an overview plus a rough chronological structure. Week one started with an excellent look at how a medieval book was made from making the manuscript or writing surface, through the covers and the production process. We discussed who the makers were and the whole thing was illustrated with some wonderful contemporary images where possible. We then moved onto early books made for the Carolingian and Ottonian Holy Roman Emperors in the 9th and 10th centuries. I didn’t know these works and the talk introduced me to a wealth of new images and ideas such as the attached image of Charles the Bald. In week two we turned to the look specifically at monastic books which allowed us to focus on English production in the 1...

Interesting online lecture from Victoria and Albert Museum on their current exhibition of fragments of illuminated manuscripts.   Catherine Yvard, Collection Curator at the National Art Library within the museum, took us through the thinking behind the show and some of the research done for it. I had seen the show shortly before and have already blogged it. She outlined how it was split into two sections one on the collection of these fragments and the fashion for them in the 19th century and the other on the original purpose and artistry of the manuscripts. Having seen the show a lot wasn’t new to me so the most interesting aspect of this talk was the   research which had gone into it such as identifying the book from which a picture of the painter Irene had come from and a Presentation in the Temple which was said to be a copy but has been identified as a page from a book of hours in the Bodleian.

Beautiful exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at their collection of fragments of illuminated manuscripts and at how they acquired them. The fashion for collecting these fragments started after the French Revolution when many manuscripts were sold off and religious text were no longer seen as relevant so they were split up and the illustrations taken out. The show was divided into two rooms. In the first one I looked at the fragments themselves discussing what type of books they came from, who commissioned them and who the artists were. I was surprised at how many of the artists could be named. It was fantastic to see these pictures hung at head height rather than looking down on them in cases. You could really study the details. My favourite, shown here, is the artist Irene from Boccaccio’s “On Famous Women” made for Jacques d’Armagnac. The second room looked at how the fragments had come into the museum’s collection in the 19th century focusing on the great co...

Delightful talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at British Cathedrals and illuminated manuscripts. Simon Jenkins talked about his recent book on cathedrals taking us on a rough chronological trip through their architecture with wonderful photographs. His lack of believe sat oddly with his love of the buildings. To me the life of a cathedral is so moulded by the worship that has gone on there over the centuries that, whether you are Christian or not, that must be part of its soul. When asked what he would do with the buildings his answer was somewhat vague and seemed to imply a glorified community centre. Christopher de Hamel talked about his book about discovering illuminated manuscripts. His talk was wonderfully quirky and fun with random pictures of dogs thrown in between the wonderful ones of illuminations, so he won me over easily! His love of the subject came across and he was full of fascination detective stories.

Delightful exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery featuring works from the Hamilton Collection bought in 1882 by the Berlin Museum. At the centre of the show are the drawings by Botticelli to illustrate Dante’s Divine Comedy. I have seen these before in a Royal Academy show a number of years ago and they make up a wonderful 15th century comic strip. I love the detail in them and yet they are so delicate. I must admit hell and purgatory are much more fun than heaven. I think my favourite were one groups of sinner whose punishment seemed to be to jump down a man hole with their feet on fire, this lend to a wonderful groups of naked lower torsos with little flames coming out of their feet. I just love the fact these are drawn by Botticelli’s won hand for Lorenzo di Pierofrancesco de Medici and you can even see the pencil drawing under the ink and that changes he made during the thinking process. The drawings were show with manuscripts from the same period often open on page...

Lovely exhibition at the British Library of illuminated manuscripts collected by the kings and queens of England. I had been warned by friends that this was a big exhibition and quite detailed and they were right so I did find I had to pace myself. I loved the opening section of books collected by Edward VI. He had lived in Bruges when in exile and had brought make amazing books from that city. The commentary concentrated on what the books were and who they were owned by. I would have like to see a bit more on their art historic context as I am sure there were links to be made between the illuminations and painting of the era but again that might have been one theme too many! The most magical section was the display with prayer books which had belonged to various queens such as Philippa of Hainault and Elizabeth of York. Just so exciting to think they had held and used those very items. Review Guardian

Small exhibition of illuminated manuscripts for the museums own collection at the Louvre in Paris. It was arranged over 2 rooms which almost displayed different worlds. The first room was the early work and showed a detailed medieval world with wonderful insights such as a woman chasing a fox which had stolen a chicken. It included wonderful works by Jean Fouquet. The second room was the Renaissance world with larger pictures looking at classical motifs and perspective. Some pictures were full page illustrations. There was a nice section on Flemish works as well.