![Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - folio 019v](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Book_of_Hours_of_Simon_de_Varie_-_KB_74_G37a_-_folio_019v.jpg)
The ''Book of Hours of Simon de Varie'' (or the ''Varie Hours'') is a French
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
book of hours
The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscrip ...
commissioned by the court official Simon de Varie, with miniatures attributed to at least four artists; hand A who may have been a workshop member of the
Bedford Master
The Bedford Master was a manuscript illuminator active in Paris during the fifteenth century. He is named for the work he did on two books illustrated for John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford between 1415 and 1435. One is the Bedford Hours, ...
, the anonymous illustrators
known as the
Master of Jean Rolin II,
[Marrow (2007), 26] the
Dunois Master
The Dunois Master, also called Chief Associate of the Bedford Master was a French manuscript illuminator believed to have been active between about 1430 and about 1465. His name comes from a book of hours made for Jean de Dunois now in the Bri ...
(hand C) and the French miniaturist
Jean Fouquet
Jean (or Jehan) Fouquet (ca.1420–1481) was a French painter and miniaturist. A master of panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature, he is considered one of the most important painters from ...
. It was completed in 1455 and consists of 49 large miniatures and dozens of decorative
vignettes
Vignette may refer to:
* Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy
* Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters
* Vignette (literature), short, i ...
and painted initials, which total over 80 decorations.
[Marrow (1994), 3] Fouquet is known to have contributed six full leaf illuminations, including a masterwork Donor and Virgin diptych. A number of saints appear -
Saint Simon (de Varie's patron saint) is placed as usual alongside
Saint Jude
Jude ( grc-gre, Ἰούδας Ἰακώβου translit. Ioúdas Iakóbou) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Thaddeus ( grc-gre, Θαδδαῖος; cop, ⲑⲁⲇⲇⲉⲟⲥ; ...
(folio 41); other pages feature saints
Bernard of Menthon
Bernard of Menthon ( it, San Bernardo di Mentone; la, Bernardus; german: Bernhard) was a canon regular and founder of the Great St Bernard Hospice, as well as its associated Canons Regular of the Hospitaller Congregation of Great Saint Bernard. ...
,
James the Greater
James the Great, also known as James, son of Zebedee, Saint James the Great, Saint James the Greater, Saint James the Elder, or Saint Jacob (Aramaic ܝܥܩܘܒ ܒܪ ܙܒܕܝ, Arabic يعقوب, Hebrew בן זבדי , '' Yaʿăqōḇ'', Latin '' ...
and
Guillaume de Bourges.
[Marrow (1994), 126]
The book was divided into 3 volumes by its 17th century owner Philippe de Béthune. Two are currently housed at
National Library of the Netherlands
The Royal Library of the Netherlands (Dutch: Koninklijke Bibliotheek or KB; ''Royal Library'') is the national library of the Netherlands, based in The Hague, founded in 1798. The KB collects everything that is published in and concerning the Ne ...
, in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
and were acquired in 1816 and 1890.
[Book of Hours of Simon de Varie]
. Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Retrieved 11 October 2014 The third was long thought to be lost, but resurfaced in 1983 when it was rediscovered by art historian and medievalist James Marrow in the possession of an antiquarian bookseller in San Francisco. That volume contains 97 leaves, and is today in the
Getty Center
The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views over ...
in Los Angeles.
The book is unusually ornate and beautiful, and measures 11.7 cm x 8.5 cm. The two Hague volumes have identical
armorial
A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms.
The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...
bindings added by their 17th-century owner Philippe de Béthune (1561–1649).
[Marrow (1994), 4] Its first major art historical treatment was published in 1902 by Paul Durrieu.
The patron
Simon de Varie was born in
Bourges
Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry.
History
The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...
as the son of a textile merchant. Although from a wealthy family, after a promising start, he had only a modest career as a crown officer under
Charles VII and
Louis XI of France
Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (french: le Prudent), was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII.
Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revo ...
. There is little record of his life. He lived and worked in Paris, and numerous elements of the illuminations can be associated with France.
![Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - folio 001r](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Book_of_Hours_of_Simon_de_Varie_-_KB_74_G37a_-_folio_001r.jpg)
His identity as patron was not established until the third volume in San Francisco was attributed. Art historian François Avril determined that the motto ''Vie a mon desir'', which appears on a filo of a kneeling man dressed in armour and red garments replete with heraldic images, was an anagram of "Simon de Varie".
De Varie has not been in the military, but is nonetheless shown wearing armour, perhaps aspirationally.
[Kren (1997), 81] His portrait is half of a diptych; the Virgin appears in a separate, opposite miniature, which is linked by floor tiles sharing a single
vanishing point
A vanishing point is a point on the image plane of a perspective drawing where the two-dimensional perspective projections of mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge. When the set of parallel lines is perpendicul ...
to those on de Varie's page. Behind him is a female heraldic figure wearing a long, veiled
hennin
The hennin (french: hennin ; possibly from Flemish nl, henninck meaning cock or rooster) was a headdress in the shape of a cone, steeple, or truncated cone worn in the Late Middle Ages by European women of the nobility. They were most common in ...
. She holds a ''escutcheon'' (shield), crowned with a helmet and chest.
de Varie probably commissioned the book to celebrate his appointment as crown officer, a position he hoped would mark the beginning of his elevation on the social ladder.
Margins
![Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - folio 014r](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Book_of_Hours_of_Simon_de_Varie_-_KB_74_G37a_-_folio_014r.jpg)
The border decorations are set within elaborate depictions of foliage. Blue, rose red and milk white hues predominate, while the initials and parts of the
branchwork Branchwork on the baptismal font of Worms Cathedral
Branchwork or branch tracery (german: Astwerk , Dutch: Lofwerk of Loofwerk) is a type of architectural ornament often used in late Gothic architecture and the Northern Renaissance, consistin ...
are lined with gold coloured paint. The foliage consists of intertwined branches, heavily decorated leaves and flowers interwoven with figures, animals, birds and fantastic human or animal forms (''grotesques'').
[Marrow (1994), 25] Coats of arms similar to those in the donor leaf appear in the borders of the page, though they have been painted over.
The names of saints, feast days and titles of the months are sprinkled across different pages, inked in red, blue and white to echo the colours of the foliage.
Marrow describes the colourisation as creating a "harmonious relationship between text and decoration". The reds and blues of the decorations match those of the text, while the milk white pigment blends with the
vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...
from which the manuscript is constructed.
The figures on the margins are generally shown in motion: gesticulating, turning or twisting inwards towards the text or paintings on the main body of their page.
Artists and sequence
The presence of at least four hands suggests that the worked at the same place, but at different stages. There are no records of the commission, so their identity has been built up through their similarity to other works and by associating stylistic traits. Hand A was identified as the "chief associate" of the
Bedford Master
The Bedford Master was a manuscript illuminator active in Paris during the fifteenth century. He is named for the work he did on two books illustrated for John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford between 1415 and 1435. One is the Bedford Hours, ...
by Marrow. The artist was described in 1966 as "easy to recognise because he paints carelessly with strong mannerisms of form and colour ... the broad shape of ... heads, the blond hair, the fussy folds of clothing". Hand B (the Master of Jean Rolin) contributions are largely in line with the then tradition of French manuscript illustration. He is identified with the illustrations on the 12 calendar pages. These contain roundel in the left margins, representation occupations usually associated with the months of the year. The lower borders and left margins contain zodiac symbols.
The calendars are followed by illustrations from the
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
s, followed by portraits of the
evangelists
Evangelists may refer to:
* Evangelists (Christianity), Christians who specialize in evangelism
* Four Evangelists, the authors of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament
* ''The Evangelists
''The Evangelists'' (''Evangheliştii'' in Roma ...
. Both sequences are attributed to hand A (workshop of the Bedford Master), and are typical of the artist's manner; round, soft features and forms set in tight and crowded spaces.
Matthew
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
,
Luke
People
*Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...
and
Mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fi ...
are set in interior settings, surrounded by iconography usually related to them.
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
is shown on the island of
Pamtos with an eagle to his left, and a
daemon
Daimon or Daemon (Ancient Greek: , "god", "godlike", "power", "fate") originally referred to a lesser deity or guiding spirit such as the daimons of ancient Greek religion and mythology and of later Hellenistic religion and philosophy.
The word ...
to his right.
Hand A is also associated with the following pages, which consist essentially of hymns and prayers to
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
. In the first two pages she is accompanied by angels playing music, with the
Christ child
The Christ Child, also known as Divine Infant, Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, the Divine Child, Child Jesus, the Holy Child, Santo Niño, and to some as Señor Noemi refers to Jesus Christ from his nativity to age 12.
The four canonical gospels, a ...
in front of her; seated on the floor or leafing through a book.
Jean Fouquet
The volume now in the Hague (KB 74 G 37) is known to have been in the possession of
Samuel van Huls of
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
(1596–1687),
William of Orange,
William IV
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...
, and
William I of the Netherlands
William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
He was the son of the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who we ...
(1772–1843), who bequeathed in 1816.
The second volume (KB 74 G 37a) was purchased in 1890 from Joseph Baer, Frankfurt, who had acquired it in 1882 from the estate of
Firmin Didot
Firmin Didot (; 14 April 176424 April 1836) was a French printer, engraver, and type founder.
Early life
Firmin Didot was born in Paris into a family of printers founded by François Didot, the father of 11 children. Firmin was one of his gra ...
.
Sometime after the book was divided in three, the location of the volume now in the Getty was lost. It was discovered in 1983 in the collection of the
bibliophiles
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books.
Profile
The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...
and
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...
s Mr and Mrs Gerald F Borrmann of Lafayette, California. Borrmann had contacted the book dealer Warren Howell seeking help in attributing a French illuminated manuscript he had acquired in London in 1979, and of which he knew little.
![Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - folio 001v](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Book_of_Hours_of_Simon_de_Varie_-_KB_74_G37a_-_folio_001v.jpg)
Fouquet would have greatly overshadowed the other hands in terms of stature, and it is thought likely that, given he is attributed with just five leaves, he was commissioned to "dress up and personalise" the book.
Marrow describes being left speechless as he realised that the style and four front piece illuminations could be attributed Jean Fouquet, the preeminent French painter of the 15th century.
Marrow further established that the fragment was the third part of a known Book of hours, though it was not then known who had commissioned the two extant volumes in the Hague.
Fouquet is now credited with six miniatures near the opening pages of the book. They consist of three double sized leaf's, with the ''Madonna with the Christ child'' now recognised as a masterpiece for its beauty, and evocation of tenderness and intimacy. Although she holds him aloft, mother and child are intertwined in subtle ways, including the manner in with her overhanging veil overhanging veil partly covers his head. The artist includes a ''
trompe-l'œil
''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
'' - the child's hand extends across onto the decorative border. On the opposite page, Christ is shown
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
, in an illustration where milk white is the dominating colour.
[Jean Fouquet]
". National Library of the Netherlands
The Royal Library of the Netherlands (Dutch: Koninklijke Bibliotheek or KB; ''Royal Library'') is the national library of the Netherlands, based in The Hague, founded in 1798. The KB collects everything that is published in and concerning the Ne ...
. Retrieved 18 October 2014
Leaves
KB 74 G 37
File:Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37 - folio 005r.jpg, Folio 005r
File:The Annunciation - Gabriel announces Christ's birth to Mary - Book of hours Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37 - 025r min.jpg, The Annunciation - Gabriel announces Christ's birth to Mary - miniature on folio 025r
File:Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37 - folio 053r.jpg, Folio 053r
File:The martyrdom of St. Laurence of Rome - he is roasted on a gridiron - Book of hours Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37 - 073v min.jpg, The martyrdom of St. Laurence of Rome - he is roasted on a gridiron - miniature on folio 073v
File:St. Maurus of Glanfeuil, walking on the water, saves St. Placidius from drowning - Book of hours Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37 - 083r min.jpg, St. Maurus of Glanfeuil, walking on the water, saves St. Placidius from drowning - miniature on folio 083r
File:St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, gives secretly dowries to three poor girls - Book of hours Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37 - 084r min.jpg, St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, gives secretly dowries to three poor girls - miniature on folio 084r
KB 74 G 37a
File:Conversion of Hermogenes by St. James the Great - Book of hours Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - 006v min.jpg, Conversion of Hermogenes by St. James the Great - miniature on folio 006v
File:A priest on his way to a dying person to administer extreme unction - Book of hours Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - 037r min.jpg, A priest on his way to a dying person to administer extreme unction - Miniature on folio 037r
File:Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - folio 038r.jpg, Folio 038r
File:Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - folio 083r.jpg, Folio 083r
File:Book of Hours of Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - folio 091r.jpg, Calendar April - folio 091r
File:April - Taurus - Book of hours Simon de Varie - KB 74 G37a - 091r det randv 2.jpg, April - Taurus
Getty Ms 7
File:La Fuite d'Egypte - Heures de Varie - Getty Center Ms7 f28v.jpg, ''La Fuite en Egypte''; Ms.7, folio 28, verso
File:Initial I - Heures de Varie - Getty Center Ms7 f72.jpg, ''Saint Bernard avec le démon enchaîné''; Ms.7, folio 72
File:Jean Fouquet (French, born about 1415 - 1420, died before 1481) - Coat of Arms Held by a Woman and a Greyhound - Google Art Project.jpg, Jean Fouquet, ''Coat of Arms Held by a Woman and a Greyhound''; Ms. 7, folio 2V
References
Notes
Sources
* Kren, Thomas. In ''Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts''. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997.
* Kren, Thomas. ''French Illuminated Manuscripts: In the J. Paul Getty Museum''. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007.
* Marrow, James. ''The Hours of Simon de Varie''. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 1994.
* Marrow, James. "Miniatures inédites de Jean Fouquet : Les Heures de Simon de Varie". ''Revue de l'Art'', Volume 67, 1985. pp. 7–32
* Mirella, Sandra. ''The Robert Lehman Collection, IV: Illuminations''. NJ: Princeton, 1997.
* Rolfe Monks, Peter. ''The Brussels Horloge De Sapience''. Leiden: Brill, 1990. {{ISBN, 90-04-09088-6
* van Drimmelen, W; et al. In: ''A hundred highlights from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek''. Zwolle, Waanders, 1994, Volume 13
15th-century illuminated manuscripts
Simon de Varie
Illuminated manuscripts of the J. Paul Getty Museum