"New" Images of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Master of Claude de France, Assumption
from Prayer Book of Claude de France
French (Tours), ca. 1517
New York, Morgan Library
MS M 1166, fol. 23v
Photo:  Schecter Lee

On Friday we will be celebrating the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15).  I wrote two essays a few years ago on the iconography of the death and assumption of Mary.  They can be found at these links.

• Vigil of the Feast of the Assumption -- The Dormition of the Virgin
• Assumpta est Maria in caelum -- Mary Is Assumed Into Heaven

I don't have any new material to add to the explanation of the iconography, but just today I found some gorgeous new images.  

Master of Claude de France, Dormition of the Virgin
from Prayer Book of Claude de France
French (Tours), ca. 1517
New York, Morgan Library
MS M 1166, fol. 23r
Photo:  Schecter Lee

I visited the Morgan Library today to see the current exhibition called "Miracles in Miniature: The Art of the Master of Claude de France".  

The images are indeed miracles in miniature and I plan to write about the exhibition very soon, but for now I want to share several that were encompassed within the show.  

Master of Claude de France, Coronation of the Virgin

from Prayer Book of Claude de France

French (Tours), ca. 1517

New York, Morgan Library

MS M 1166, fol. 24r

Photo:  Schecter Lee

Most of the illuminations were from the hand of the Master of Claude de France, an artist who flourished for a relatively short time (1508-1520 is the period named), at a turning point in the history of the art of the illustrated book.  He (or possibly she) belongs to the last generation of artists who practiced the very fine art of manuscript illumination.  These amazing works stand at the pinnacle of the art, with absolutely amazing detail crammed into the tiniest of spaces.  Little in the exhibition measures more than about 4 inches square!  The highly readable writing is the tiniest you've ever seen, provided you have good reading glasses! 

Jean Bourdichon, Assumption of the Virgin
from Book of Hours
French (Tours), ca. 1515
New York, Morgan Library
MS M732, fol. 56v

However, I found the most compelling image in the show to be a page from a much larger book, a Book of Hours, illuminated by Jean Bourdichon, who was the teacher of the Master of Claude de France.  It is a beautiful image of the Assumption, in which Mary, surrounded by a golden glow, is raised to heave by admiring angels lifting her on a cloud, as other cherubic angels cluster in the upper corners.  The whole is contained in a classical frame of columns with Corinthian capitals.  The image I was able to retrieve does not, by any stretch of the imagination, do the delicate coloring full justice.