The Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500 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; ...

painter of

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 ...

s and miniatures active in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

from about 1485 until around 1520. His name is derived from a collection of devotional manuscripts from the same artist dating to about the start of the 16th century. The name notwithstanding, the Master is best known for the work he did painting

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

images, incorporating details from daily life in a number of his original narratives. His interest in courtly life, as well as the daily activities of the lower classes, may be seen as well in his paintings for

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

s. He may have been a small group of artists in a workshop rather than an individual. His exceptional ''

Roman de la Rose ''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegorical dream vision. As poetry, ''The Romance of the Rose'' is a notable instance of courtly literature, purporting to provid ...

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Harley MS 4425 has 92 large and high quality miniatures, with a date around 1500.

Notes

References

Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500 at the Getty Museum
15th-century births 15th-century deaths Early Netherlandish painters Manuscript illuminators Prayer Books of around 1500 Artists from Bruges 16th-century Flemish painters {{netherlandish-painter-stub