Collection Online as of September 27, 2023

Book of Hours (Use of Paris)

c. 1420

Part of a set. See all set records

follower of Boucicaut Master

(French, Paris, active about 1410–25)

France, Paris, 15th century

Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum

Sheet: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.)

Bequest of Julia Morgan Marlatt 1942.169

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The owner of a book of hours was intended to stop eight times a day and read a devotional text.

Description

The Boucicaut Master takes his name from the book of hours he made for Jean de Boucicaut (died 1421), marshal of France, who was taken prisoner by the English at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. This talented artist, known for his tall, elongated figures with delicate features, exercised profound influence over Parisian manuscript painting during the first decades of the 1400s—a point illustrated by this volume.

Provenance

-1942

Estate of Julia Morgan Marlatt, Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1942-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

“Gothic Art 1360-1440: Catalog.” The Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin (Sept. 1963) p. 189 & 202

Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean De Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. 1967.

Delaisse, L.M.J. “An Exhibition of Netherlandish Book Illumination.” AllenMemorial Art Museum Bulletin XVII (Summer 1960) p. 97

Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. p. 36

Olds, Clifton C., Ralph G. Williams, and William R. Levin. Images of Love and Death in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art: The University of Michigan, Museum of Art, November 21, 1975-January 4, 1976. [Ann Arbor]: University of Michigan, Museum of Art, 1976. p. 50

Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, and J. van den Gheyn. Deux livres d'heures (nos. 10767 et 11051 de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique) attribués à l'enlumineur Jacques Coene. Bruxelles: Vromant & co; [etc.], 1911.

Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting, Its Origins and Character. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953. figs. 67, 74, 77

Delaisse, L.M.J. “Une Production d’un atelier Parisien et le Caractere Composite de Certains Livres d’Herures." Scriptorium II (1948) p. 78

Bartz, Gabriele. Zentrum und Peripherie: der Meister des Guise-Stundenbuchs, vel potius Meister des Stundenbuchs des Guy de Laval. Simbach am Inn: Verlagsbuchhandlung Anton Pfeiler, 2017. Mentioned: p. 58, 88 (notes 1-4); 120,179 (note 2); 181; 223, 238

Exhibition history

Netherlandish Book Illustrations. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (April 22-May 15, 1960).

Scriptorium: The Illuminated Book in Medieval Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-February 2, 1992).

The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2010-April 17, 2011).