Hours of Mary of Burgundy Virgin and Child

The Master of Mary of Burgundy was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

illuminator, painter and draughtsman active between 1469-1483 in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

, probably in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

. His

notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...

is derived from two

books 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 ...

attributed to him, the Vienna

Hours of Mary of Burgundy The Hours of Mary of Burgundy (german: Stundenbuch der Maria von Burgund)Inglis, I is a book of hours, a form of devotional book for lay-people, completed in Flanders around 1477, and now in the National Library of Austria. It was probably commi ...

and another books of hours, now in Berlin, also for

Mary of Burgundy Mary (french: Marie; nl, Maria; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of ...

.Master of Mary of Burgundy
.

J. Paul Getty Trust The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, with an estimated endowment of US$7.7 billion in 2020. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations—the Getty Center in the ...

. Retrieved 22 November 2017 He was influenced by advances in oil on canvas panel painting, especially the works and approach of

Hugo van der Goes Hugo van der Goes (c. 1430/1440 – 1482) was one of the most significant and original Flemish painters of the late 15th century. Van der Goes was an important painter of altarpieces as well as portraits. He introduced important innovations in pa ...

, and may have been also a painter himself. His illuminations are characterised by a tendency towards a dark palette,Schmidt, Hans.
Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists
. Oxford University Press: Grove Art Online. Retrieved 25 November 2017 an aesthetic favoured by the court of the time, as well as innovative uses of ''

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 ...

'' devices in both his miniatures and border decorations. While a relatively small number of works have been attributed to him, the master is seen as one of the chief innovators of late 15th century manuscript illumination.

Attribution

Vienna Master of Mary of Burgundy - The Deposition - Google Art Project

One of the most talented and innovative artists of his generation, he is known to have been influenced by contemporary panel painters, including van der Goes,

Justus van Gent Justus van Gent or Joos van Wassenhove (also: Justus or Jodocus of Ghent, or Giusto da Guanto) (c. 1410 – c. 1480) was an Early Netherlandish painter who after training and working in Flanders later moved to Italy Italy ( it, Italia ...

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

, and

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. Ac ...

,Pächt, 296-299 although in tone and style only, direct figurative borrowings are rare, and he may himself have been a panel painter - both van Eyck and Rogier are known to have worked on illuminations. Other works attributed to the master include miniatures in the Prayer Book of Charles the Bold (Ms. 37) in the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood, Los Angeles, Brentwood neighborhood ...

, and the Hours of Engelbert of Nassau in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

, in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Style

During his career he made a number of iconographic and formal innovations, and is today seen as the main innovator in bringing about a new style of Flemish illumination in the 1470s and 1480s.Pächt, 299 He was highly regarded by wealthy and powerful patrons in his lifetime, and followed by a great number of imitators.Pächt, 300 A small number of extant drawings are also attributed to him.van Buren, 292 The master's illustrations in the Hours of Mary of Burgundy can be characterised by the use of everyday devotional objects, including books and rosary beads, as well as domestic settings, to frame images of the Virgin and Child, thereby bringing the sacred into domestic, earthly spaces.Woods, 112 Prayer Book of Charles the Bold

He achieved the modeling of figures and objects by building layers of paint in thin but visible strokes, rather than the then convention of

hatching Hatching (french: hachure) is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing) closely spaced parallel lines. (It is also used in monochromatic representations of heraldry to indicate what the ...

. One of his characteristic techniques was to place religious scenes behind a window, create an illusion of depth, and with the scene in the background intended as the main focus of interest. The two most well known examples of this are the "Virgin and Child" and "Christ nailed to the Cross" miniatures for the Mary of Burgundy book. The master collaborated with a number of artists of the earlier generation, including

Lieven van Lathem Lieven van Lathem (1430–1493), was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator. Career He was born in Ghent.Simon Marmion Simon Marmion (c. 1425 – 24 or 25 December 1489) was a French and Burgundian Early Netherlandish painter of panels and illuminated manuscripts. Marmion lived and worked in what is now France but for most of his lifetime was part of the Duchy ...

and

Nicolas Spierinc Nicolas Spierinc was a Flemish illuminator and scribe active in late 1400s. Works attributed to him include the lettering of the Hours of Mary of Burgundy. He was a student of medicine at the University at Louvain, later changing his profession to ...

, but soon surpassed them.

Notes

Sources

* Pächt, Otto. "The Master of Mary of Burgundy". ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'', Volume 85, No. 501, 1944 * Pächt, Otto.''The Master of Mary of Burgundy'', Faber & Faber, 1948 * van Buren, Anne. "The Master of Mary of Burgundy and His Colleagues: The State of Research and Questions of Method". ''Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte'', 38. Bd., H. 3/4, 1975 * Walther, Ingo. ''Codices Illustres''. Berlin: Taschen Verlag, 2001. * Woods, Kim. ''Viewing Renaissance Art''. Yale University Press, 2007. {{ACArt Anonymous artists Early Netherlandish painters Flemish Renaissance painters Burgundian Netherlands artists