Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg

Crucifixion. Miniature from Psalter of Bonne of Luxemburg 1348-49. Metropolitan Museum, New York

The Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg is small a 14th-century illuminated manuscript in tempera, grisaille, ink and gold leaf on vellum,[1] now in the collection of the Cloisters, New York. It was probably executed for Bonne de Luxembourg, wife of John II of France, probably at the end of his life, c 1348-49. It consists of 333 pages of parchment, each measuring 126 x 88 mm. The illustrations are attributed to the miniaturist Jean Le Noir.

Commission

Leaf

The book was commissioned for the private devotions of Jutta of Luxembourg, the second daughter of John the Blind, king of Bohemia, and his first wife, Elisabeth of Bohemia, the intended first wife of King John II of France. Bonne died young, before she assumed position as Queen of France. However she was mother to Charles V and his brother Jean, duc de Berry. The master most associated with the manuscript is Jean Le Noir, active in Paris between 1435 and 1480. Other hands include members of his workshop and possibly his daughter, Bourgot.[2] The style seems influenced by Jean Pucelle.[3]

Her arms, showing Luxembourg impaled with Valois, decorate the lower border of the pages. The ornate linings contain a variety of flora and bird species. Jean Le Noir is credited with its best known pages; a crucifixion scene, a double page Memento mori, The Three Living and the Three Dead, and a representation of a highly placed courtier held back by a fool. The work as a whole is noted for its preoccupation with death and its implications thereof.

Description

Jean le Noir, Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg (c. 1348 – 1349, New York, The Cloisters, Inv. 69. 86.), The Three Living and the Three Dead, folio 322r

The illustrations are characterised by unusually skilled handling of line, silhouette, and the realistic modeling of the figures. It begins ordinarily enough with a calendar showing traditional scenes of farm labourers and zodiac signs. The main body of the book consists of illustrations of the Psalms. The final pages include unusual miniatures illustrating prayers, including folio 315, a representation of Divine Love Enthroned. The choice of iconographical elements and themes are unusually dark, specific, and thought to have originated by request from Jutta, who died thereafter.[2]

The Fool Hath said in his heart, There is no God; illustration of Psalm 53

A crucifixion scene shows two kneeling figures before the crucified Christ. He lays his hands directly on His wounds, described in the accompanying text. In this way he is depicted as a self-sacrificing God, and is painted in a very naturalistic, human manner.[2] It is on this basis dated to just before her death in 1349, a period when the newly introduced plague was beginning to ravish Europe. The passages in the manuscript depicting suffering depict this new sickness, and have been described as of "incredible intensity".[2] The most acclaimed two leafs illustrate the Two Fools and the Three Living and the Three Dead, an allegory of transience and reminder to the viewer of their mortality. This double miniature is one of the first such allegories to appear in northern European art, and seems influenced by the French poets Baudouin de Condé and Nicolas de Margival. The first of the two pages depicts three young courtiers who happen across a cemetery, to find three corpses at varying degrees of decomposition. The dead mock the young men's superficial outlook, and in what was to become a classic motif of Memento mori, the accompanying text urges reflection by asking "What you are, we once were; what we are, you will be."[4]

The page illustrating Psalm 53. The Fool Hath said in his heart, There is no God shows a fat, ugly man drinking from a large cup. He is held back by another man who holds his long hood and beats him with a leather instrument. The leaf contains Arabic motifs, and the man has Semitic features; the picture has been used at times to arouse anti-Jewish sentiment. The image is in fact a satire, with the second man identifiable from the French court. This fact reinforces that the donor was a highly ranked member of the French ruling classes. Both men contain elements of the grotesque, and are executed in grisaille against a deep blue background. The bas-de-page contains two lions gnawing at the Bonne of Luxembourg coat of arms.[4]

Gallery

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "Psalter and Hours of Bonne of Luxembourg, Duchess of Normandy". Metropolitan Museum, New York. Retrieved 5 April 2105.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Walther, 218
  3. ↑ "Psalter and Hours of Bonne de Luxembourg, Duchess of Normandy, before 1349". Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Retrieved 05 April 2015
  4. 1 2 Walther, 219

Bibliography

External links

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