Grandes Heures of Jean, Duc de Berry Getijdenboek

Grandes Heures of Jean, Duc de Berry
Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten op 13 januari 2012
De titel zegt het al. Ik ben verrukt over dit getijdenboek. Het illustreert de rijkdom aan kleuren, kunst en verbeelding die zijn gebruikt om het te creëren. Op het eerste gezicht dacht ik aan de eenvoud van de stijl toen ik aan dit meesterwerk voor Books of Hours kwam. De kleuren zijn helder en waarheidsgetrouw, alsof ze net gemaakt zijn. Van alle getijdenboeken van Jean, Duke of Berry die ik bezit, is dit het meest opvallende van allemaal. Het volledige manuscript bevat bijna 100 volledige pagina's prachtige gekleurde platen en bevat de mooiste kalligrafie voor die tijd.
Onnodig te zeggen dat het boek de kosten waard is.
Book overview
One of the miracles of art history.nn"The book is a work of astonishing beauty. Its yellowing vellum pages of handwritten text are exquisitely decorated with illuminated capitals and tiny brightly colored miniatures of religious subjects and scenes from 15th-century life. It is universally recognized as one of the two or three finest illuminated medieval manuscripts in existence. 'Incomparable' is how John Plummer, curator of medieval and renaissance manuscripts at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, describes it."The New York TimesnnCited as "one of the miracles of art history" by Kenneth Clark, The Trs Riches Heures is the most luxurious and most famous of such books and marks the zenith of manuscript illumination in late medieval Europe. Commissioned by the influential patron, Jean de Berry, in the early years of the fifteenth century, this masterpiece was executed by the three Limbourg brothers, the greatest miniaturists of the time. The manuscript opens with a calendar illuminating scenes of daily life during the twelve months and is followed by the prayers of offices celebrated at different times of the day. These texts are often accompanied by miniatures, in which the artists' imaginative and decorative genius are fully revealed. The personal approach of the Limbourgs to nature, human activity, and beauty represents the transition from medieval attitudes to those of the Renaissance. Their elegant images, in fact, were to influence the course of painting in France and all of Northern Europe; but, as Millard Meiss comments, 'no painter could match the smooth perfection of their surface, their limpid color and complex simplicity. Their art could capture the delicate transitory beauty of a newly opened flower.' This edition reproduces each of the miniatures in The Trs Riches Heures to scale and in full color, elegantly capturing both the subtle color and minute detail of these historic images.