Miraculous Miniatures

Master of Claude de France, Angels Holding the Crown of Thorns
and the Eucharistic Host
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
Frencg, ca. 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 51v-52r
Photo:  Schecter Lee

Among the amazing feats of human endeavor two things have always fascinated me.  One is the fine detail frequently found in ancient jewelry, as for instance in Greek and Roman gold jewelry.  Another is the staggering detail that can be found in illuminated manuscripts, details that must be painted with brushes no bigger than a single hair.  And some of the most astounding documents of the miniature painter’s art that I have ever seen are currently on display at the Morgan Library.  I visited the exhibition, called appropriately “Miracles in Miniature:  The Art of the Master of Claude de France”, some time ago, but have not been able to prepare this review till now.  Unfortunately, the exhibition closes on September 14, so there are just a couple of weeks left for you to see it, if you are in the New York area. 

If you are not able to make it the Morgan Library website does provide digital facsimiles of two of the primary volumes in the exhibition.  However, I urge you to get to the Library if you can.  Digital images are great; they allow you to get very close to the page, closer than you could possibly get in person.  But, like all photographs, they can also be deceptive.  Unless you see the actual book on display you will not believe it.

The works on display are primarily the work of a miniature painter currently known as the Master of Claude de France, as his or her name is as yet unknown to us.  Indeed, it is not such a long time since the hand of this master was identified by the manuscript specialist, Charles Sterling. Two of the works on display were commissioned by Claude, who was the daughter of King Louis XII and Queen Anne of Brittany.  She was Duchess of Brittany by inheritance from her mother and was married, at the age of 14, to her cousin, Francois de Valois, count of Angouleme and heir to her father's crown, thus succeeding her mother as Queen of France and uniting the Duchy of Brittany to the crown of France.  She died at the age of 24, in 1524.

The primary manuscript, the Prayer Book
of Claude de France, is displayed along

This photo, taken at the exhibition, offers some scale for the size of
the books.  However, they are even smaller than they appear to be.
The book seen in this photo is the Book of Hours of Claude de France.
Photo:  Emon Hassan for The New York Times

with two other books.
  

All three books fit into a case that is approximately 6 inches square!  The Prayer Book of Claude de France is, in fact, only 2-3/4 inches by 2 inches, smaller than a credit card, and the other books are only slightly bigger.







A sense of the scale can be gained from the image of the book being held in someone’s hands that appeared on the Morgan’s website.  Yet, within these extremely small pages, the Claude Master managed to paint scenes that rival full scale panel painting.  Truly these are miraculous miniatures!

Photo of the Prayer Book of Claude de France being held.
Photo:  Schecter Lee

All but one of the illuminations in the Prayer Book are contained within the borders of one leaf.  One image, of the Trinity, spreads over two pages, one of which it fills completely.  

The images surround the text on each page and the text is so small that it is amazing that the Queen of France was able to read the text of the prayers at all.  Surely, the painter did not do this work with the unaided eye!  He must have had access to artificial magnification.  One tends to forget that, although the microscope and the telescope were perfected during the seventeenth century, the simple magnifying lens was already known as early as the thirteenth century.   Magnifying spectacles must have been as essential to the Claude Master as were his brushes.  

Master of Claude de France
Angels Adoring the Trinity
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
French, ca. 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 25r
Photo: Schecter Lee

The incredible detail is best seen on the Morgan’s own website, where there is an online exhibition that permits you to zoom to the highest resolution possible.  Check out the detail in the angels at the top right corner of page 25, for instance here. 

Although the three tiny books at the heart of this show may look like charming toys for a queen they were intended, as was every illuminated book of hours or prayer book, as aids to prayer.  

Master of Claude de France, Jesus Purges the Temple and
the Agony in the Garden
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
French, ca. 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 6v-7r
Photo: Schecter Lee

They were a means of focusing the attention of the viewer on the stories they tell, whether from the Bible or from the lives of the saints.  The smallest book, the Prayer Book of Claude de France contains a complete illustration cycle for the Life of Christ and of the Life of the Virgin, including the tales of her conception and childhood, as well as illustrations from the lives of several of the Apostles.
  

Master of Claude de France, Assumption and Coronation of
the Blessed Virgin
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
French, ca. 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 23v-24r
Photo:  Schecter Lee

Some of the saints whose stories were included were of special importance to France and to the royal house of France.  These included:  St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Genevieve, St. Claude, St. Rene, St. Hubert and St. Louis.

Master of Claude de France, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata
and St. Martin Preparing to St. Martin Preparing to Divide His Cloak
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
French, ca. 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 37v-38r
Photo: Schecter Lee

In addition, there are such popular saints as: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Anthony of Egypt, Gregory, Mary Magdalene, Veronica, Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret of Alexandria, Helena and Ursula.

Master of Claude de France, St. Catherine of Alexandria
and St. Margaret of Alexandria
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
French, ca. 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 43v-44r
Photo: Schecter Lee

There are images of the mysteries of the Faith such as the Trinity and the Eucharist and the Communion of the Saints.

Master of Claude de France, All Saints
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
French, ca. 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 48v-49r
Photo:  Schecter Lee

In spite of its amazingly small size it is a powerhouse of assistance in prayerful meditation. 

The other books on display are also small masterpieces, though none are quite as tiny as the Prayer Book of Claude de France.  However, some of them are also intimately connected with her.

Master of Claude de France, Annunciation
From Hours of Claude de France
French, ca. 1517
Bibermuehle (Switzerland), Collection of Heribert Tenschert
Fol. 14v
Photo:  Ina Kettlehoven

 Her Book of Hours, on loan from a private collection, is on view, as is the prayer book of her mother, Anne de Bretagne, also Queen of France twice over, as the wife of first Charles VIII and then Louis XII.

Jean Poyer, Penitance
From Prayer Book of Anne de Bretagne
French, 1492-1495
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M50, fol. 10v
Here the penitent is Queen Anne herself.

Master of Claude de France, Pages from a Book of Hours
French, ca. 1515-17
Private Collection
Fol. 26v-27
It is suggested that this book may have been commissioned
for Renee de France, Claude's younger sister.

Other books and loose pages on display, some of them recently identified as the work of the Claude Master, are assembled together for the first time. 

The books in this exhibition stand at the very end of the great tradition of manuscript illumination that developed during the middle ages.  Beginning with occasional full page illustrations and smaller illustrations, sometimes single figures, sometimes whole scenes, in the capital letters and/or the margins, illumination had evolved by this time into a form that presented the natural world in very tiny scale.

Master of Claude de France, Agony in the Garden
Single Leaf from a Book of  Hours
French, ca. 1505-1520
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1143.001r

By the time these images were painted, the art of illumination had become a luxury profession, practiced by specialized artists and no longer a natural part of producing books by hand.  Book publication had already assumed most of its modern characteristics with mass production by presses and illustration by hand had already been replaced by woodcut and print illustration.  When produced these small gems were already luxury goods for a tiny group of royal and aristocratic individuals.  And this show surely reflects this.

Master of Claude de France, Exposition of the Eucharist
From Prayer Book of Claude de France
French, 1517
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M1166, fol. 52v
Photo:  Schecter Lee

It would not be until the 19^th century that such lavishly decorated picture books would appear again, following advances in color printing processes.  Today this kind of illustration is primarily found in books intended for children.  So, seeing these incredible masterpieces of miniature painting, intended to assist an adult in prayer, is both an enormous treat and a reminder of how much life has changed in 500 years.

© M. Duffy, 2014

The Eucharist and the Old Testament at the Morgan Library



Last Supper and Manna in the Desert

From Speculum humanae salvationis

Belgium, Bruges, Mid-15th Century

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M385, fol. 18v

(Please note that this essay was originally written in conjunction with a temporary exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, which ran from May to September in 2013.)*

In this section of the exhibition “Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art” the Morgan Library presents what is known as the typology of the Eucharist. Typology is one of the ways in which the early church and the medieval church meditated on the meaning of the Eucharist. In typology events and people in the Old Testament are related to events and people that they appear to foreshadow in the New Testament.

The use of typology to reflect on Jesus, His life, His resurrection and the Eucharist He left us begins at the very beginning of Christianity, with the New Testament. Several of the New Testament writers were the first to think of relating the events they describe to events from earlier Jewish history. As an example, in the Bread of Life discourse in John 6:30-58,  Jesus and his interlocutors refer several times to the manna which fed the Israelites in the desert, contrasting His Body and Blood, the real Bread from Heaven, with the ephemeral manna from heaven.

It is small wonder, then, that typology became a major tool in people’s thinking about theology and, especially, in presenting Christianity in a visual manner.

One of the most commonly used books in the later middle ages was the Speculum humanae salvationis (the Mirror of Mankind’s Salvation). This book was a manual of typology particularly popular with the laity, but also used by the clergy. Typically, the pages of the book would include an image from the life of Jesus and other images from the Old Testament, usually one from the Book of Genesis and another from the other books, from Exodus on. We have looked at some of these in previous articles. This kind of composition was also used in the sculpture and decoration, for example in the famous Klosterneuburg Altarpiece.

The Morgan’s current exhibition includes a copy of the Speculum which includes not just two Old Testament scenes, but three. The New Testament scene is the Last Supper. It is related to one scene from Genesis (the scene in which Melchisedek, the priest-king of Salem, the early name for Jerusalem, offers bread and wine to Abram in Genesis 14:18-20) and two scenes from the book of Exodus (the Paschal Lamb of Exodus 12 and the collection of manna from Exodus 16). Clearly, the message is that the bread and wine offered by Melchisedek and the manna from heaven prefigure the bread and wine offered at Mass and the Bread from Heaven, which the bread and wine become at the consecration. In addition, the Paschal Lamb is to be seen as a type of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary in which each Mass participates.

The Paschal Lamb and Melchisedek and Abram

From Speculum humanae salvationis

Belgian, Bruges, Mid-15th Century

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M385, fol. 19r

The Manna and the Lamb are also seen in the beautiful Book of Hours prepared for Catherine of Cleves in the mid-15th century.

The Paschal Lamb

From Hours of Catherine of Cleves

Dutch, Utrecht, ca. 1440

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M945, fol. 140v

The Manna in the Desert

From Hours of Catherine of Cleves

Dutch, Utrecht, ca. 1440

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M945, 137v

And the Last Supper is paired with the meeting of Melchisedek and Abram in another Book of Hours from the later part of the 15th century.  Here the Eucharistic typology of the story of Melchisedek is made explict.  He is dressed as a bishop and the bread and wine he offers to Abram are the Host and Chalice.

Last Supper 

From a Book of Hours

Belgian (probably Brussels), ca. 1475

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M485, fol. 40v

Melchisedek and Abram 

From Book of Hours

Belgian (probably Brussels), ca. 1475

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M485, fol. 41r (detail)

Other references to the Old Testament also occur in the show. One symbolically suggests that the New Testament has superseded the Old, the other suggests that both are necessary for salvation.

Master of Jacques de Luxembourg, Last Supper 

From Book of Hours

French (or northeastern France), c. 1465

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M1003, fol. 13r

The first image shows the scene of the Last Supper seen as if it is taking place in a house from which the sides have been removed. As Judas (identified by the money bag he is holding) exits, the rest of the Apostles still sit at table with Jesus. As Judas leaves he is confronted with the image of a woman standing in a canopied niche, wearing a crown and holding in her right hand the familiar image of the Host surmounting a Chalice and in her left the shaft of a pennant which identifies her as the image of Ecclesia or Church. She represents the New Testament. In a niche on the other side of the “house” in a similar canopied niche, stands the figure of another woman. This one is blindfolded. In her right hand she holds the tablets of the Law rather limply. In her left hand is a pennant that identifies her as Synagoga. She represents the Old Testament. This pairing had a long history in medieval art.












Another, more unusual, image in the show comes from a Missal probably produced in Tours, France around 1400.

In this book, the left hand page depicts the Crucifixion.

Crucifixion 

From Missal

French (possibly Troyes), ca. 1400

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M331, fol. 186v

Christ in Majesty 

From Missal

French (possibly Troyes), c. 1400

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M331, fol. 187r

But, instead of an image of the Mass or of an Old Testament scene, such as the Paschal Lamb, the right hand page presents an image of Christ in Majesty. He sits in a central diamond-shaped space in the traditional pose for this image. The corners of the overall rectangle of the picture field are occupied by the four Evangelists and their associated beasts of Revelation 4:6-9 (themselves echoing four beasts from the Old Testament (Ezekiel 1:5-10). Thus far this image is a typical image of Christ in Majesty, seen in countless medieval images. What makes this one somewhat unusual are the two altars seen to the right and left of Christ in the central diamond. To His right, below the hand which is raised in blessing is a Christian altar, identifiable from the Chalice and the Host, which lies on top of a corporal (a small square of folded linen used to cover the chalice during Mass). To his left, the hand holding the orb, which represents the world, stands an Old Testament altar. On it is placed the tablets of the Law. Here the Old and New Testament altars appear on an equal basis, as the two foundation stones of salvation. The Law is completed by the sacrificial offering of Christ and its continuation in the Mass.

© Margaret Duffy, 2013

* Some images are available at http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/images/illuminating-faith

Monkeys in the Margins - the Breviary of Queen Isabella

Monkey Playing the Bagpipes
from the Isabella Breviary
Flemish (Bruges), ca. 1488-ca. 1497
London, British Library
MS Additional 18851, fol. 270

This "monkey", despite the well-observed

paws, is more humanoid in appearance than

most.  Clad in a fool's hood (note the ears) he

is meant to be seen as grotesque.

I've been somewhat under the weather recently and so have not been doing much research.  However, I just came across this interesting and amusing article on the medieval manuscript blog of the British Library that I thought I would share with you.

To read the blog article and see the other illuminations, click on
Monkeys in the Margins - Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts

A Breviary, contains the psalms and readings and prayers for the Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours.  Often associated with the clergy and religious alone, the breviary is an important prayer tool for the laity as well.  In the later middle ages especially, it was a well-used item by many in the literate classes.  A shortened version, for the use of the laity, known as the Book of Hours , is the most common book surviving from the middle ages.  Most of the manuscript editions we see today are the luxe versions prepared for and used by the noblility. Often these contained calendar pages , illustrations of Biblical events, devotional images and border decorations so that each was a little art gallery. 

Frequently, the border decorations on the pages included paintings of plants and animals from the natural world, sometimes providing thinly disguised commentary on the folly of human activities.  The artist (or artists) who decorated this manuscript Breviary, which belonged to Queen Isabella of Castille (the patron of Christopher Colombus) seems to have had a particular interest in the humanoid activities of monkeys, who preen, play the bagpipes, tend to the vines they live among and perform other activites.