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.)
Jean Bourdichon - Book of Hours, about 1515-1520
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.
Object details
Accession number
6.T.1
Primary Creator
Jean Bourdichon (about 1457 - 1521, Tours)
Full title
Book of Hours
Creation Date
about 1515-1520
Object Case
Book Of Hours Case
Language
Latin
Publication Place
Tours
Description
1 Vol. ( 131 + 4 leaves, 25 lines) ; parchment ; ill. : 16.5 cm (folio)
Provenance
Gift of Sir Henry Englefield (1715–1780), sixth Baronet, to his second wife, Catharine Buck (1725–1805), after 1751.
Collection of William Pitt of Queen Street, Westminster, London. (possibly the British prime minister William Pitt (1759–1806))
Purchased by the antiquarian and writer on science Sir Henry Charles Englefield (1752(?)-1822), seventh Baronet, from the Pitt sale on 20 January 1808, lot 842.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer Consiglio Ricchetti, Venice on 12 August 1890 for 5000 lire.
Marks
Inscribed (third flyleaf): "Catherine Englefield from her beloved husband Henry Englefield"
Affixed (f. 1): Excerpt from Pitt sale [lot 842]
Dimensions
16.5 x 10.5 cm (6 1/2 x 4 1/8 in.)
Display Media
Ink, colors, and gold on parchment
Web 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.
Permanent Gallery Location
Long Gallery
Bibliography
Leigh & S. Sotheby. A catalogue of the small & elegant library of a late, well-known literary amateur... (London, 20 June 1808), lot 842.Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston: 1922), pp. 18-22. (as French, 16th-17th century)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 241. (as French, late 15th century)
Seymour De Ricci and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, Vol. 1 (New York, 1935), p. 931, no. 8. (as probably illuminated by Jean Bourdichon)
John Plummer. The Last Flowering: French Painting in Manuscripts, 1420-1530. Exh. cat. (New York: J. Pierpoint Morgan Library, 1982), p. 83, no. 107. (as illuminated by Jean Bourdichon)
Ann Farr Snowden. Illuminating the Gardner Hours: A Question of Attribution and Devotion. Master's thesis (Wellesley: Wellesley College, 1985), pp. 1-85, ill. (as illuminated by the workshop of Jean Bourdichon (?), about 1500)
Myra Oaths in Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston: 2003), pp. 134-35. (as illuminated by Jean Bourdichon, about 1515)
Nicholas Herman. Jean Bourdichon (1457-1521): Tradition, Transition, Renewal. PhD diss. (New York: New York University, 2014), pp. 7-14.
University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts, no. 198050, accessed 1 December 2016. (as illuminated by Jean Bourdichon (?), about 1510)
Nicholas Herman in Jeffrey F. Hamburger et al. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Newton: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Cambridge: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2016), pp. 104,133, 144-46, no. 112, ill. (as illuminated by Jean Bourdichon, about 1515-1520)
Rights and reproductions
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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.