The ''Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg'' is a small 14th-century

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 ...

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...

, ink and gold leaf on

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 ...

. It is held in the collection of

The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...

, New York, where it is usually on display. The book was probably commissioned for Bonne de Luxembourg,

Duchess of Normandy The Duchess of Normandy was the wife of the ruler or sub-ruler of the Duchy of Normandy.However,for the queen regnant such as Elizabeth II will be also called the Duke of Normandy. Duchess of Normandy First Creation House of Normandy, 91 ...

, daughter of

John the Blind John the Blind or John of Luxembourg ( lb, Jang de Blannen; german: link=no, Johann der Blinde; cz, Jan Lucemburský; 10 August 1296 – 26 August 1346), was the Count of Luxembourg from 1313 and King of Bohemia from 1310 and titular King of ...

and the wife of

John II of France John II (french: Jean II; 26 April 1319 – 8 April 1364), called John the Good (French: ''Jean le Bon''), was King of France from 1350 until his death in 1364. When he came to power, France faced several disasters: the Black Death, which kill ...

, probably at the end of her husband's life, c 1348–49. At the time illuminated manuscripts could compete with monastic scriptoria and panel painting as commercially attractive

donor portrait A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family. ''Donor portrait'' usually refers to the portr ...

s. Bonne died of plague in 1349. It consists of 333 pages of parchment each measuring 126 x 88 mm. The illustrations are attributed to the miniaturist Jean Le Noir, and include graphic representations of astrological predictions by the Roman writer

Marcus Manilius Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD) was a Roman poet, astrologer, and author of a poem in five books called '' Astronomica''. The ''Astronomica'' The author of ''Astronomica'' is neither quoted nor mentioned by any ancient writer. Even his n ...

Commission

Bonne of Luxembourg, with her husband Jean

The book was commissioned for Jutta of Luxembourg, the second daughter of

, king of Bohemia, and his first wife, Elisabeth of Bohemia, the intended first wife of King

. Bonne died young, before she assumed position as Queen of France. However she was mother to

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infan ...

and his brother

Jean, duc de Berry John of Berry or John the Magnificent ( French: ''Jean de Berry'', ; 30 November 1340 – 15 June 1416) was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. He was Regent of France during the minority of his nephew 1380-138 ...

. Her arms, showing Luxembourg impaled with Valois, decorate the lower border of the pages. The ornate linings contain a variety of flora and bird species. Jean Le Noir is credited with executing the best-known pages; a crucifixion scene, a double page

Memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'Jean Le Noir, active in Paris between 1335 and 1375. Other hands include members of his workshop and possibly his daughter, Bourgot.Walther, 218 The style seems influenced by

Jean Pucelle Jean Pucelle (c. 1300 – 1355; active c. 1320–1350) was a Parisian Gothic-era manuscript illuminator who excelled in the invention of drolleries as well as traditional iconography. He is considered one of the best miniaturists of ...

.Psalter and Hours of Bonne de Luxembourg, Duchess of Normandy, before 1349
. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Retrieved 05 April 2015

Description

The illustrations are characterised by unusually skilled handling of line, silhouette, and the realistic modeling of the figures. It begins ordinarily enough with a calendar showing traditional scenes of farm labourers and zodiac signs. The main body of the book consists of illustrations of the Psalms. The final pages include unusual miniatures illustrating prayers, including folio 315, a representation of ''Divine Love Enthroned''. The choice of iconographical elements and themes are unusually dark, specific, and thought to have originated by request from Jutta, who died thereafter. A crucifixion scene shows two kneeling figures before the crucified Christ. He lays his hands directly on His wounds, described in the accompanying text. In this way he is depicted as a self-sacrificing God, and is painted in a very naturalistic, human manner. It is on this basis dated to just before her death in 1349, a period when the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

was beginning to ravage Europe. The passages in the manuscript depict the suffering caused by this new plague, and have been described as of "incredible intensity". The most acclaimed two leaves illustrate the ''Two Fools and the Three Living and the Three Dead'', an allegory of transience and reminder to the viewer of their mortality. This double miniature is one of the first such allegories to appear in northern European art, and seems influenced by the French poets

Baudouin de Condé Baudouin (;, ; nl, Boudewijn Albert Karel Leopold Axel Maria Gustaaf, ; german: Balduin Albrecht Karl Leopold Axel Maria Gustav. 7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993), Dutch name Boudewijn, was King of the Belgians from 17 July 1951 until his de ...

and

Nicolas de Margival Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

. The first page depicts three young courtiers who happen across a cemetery, to find three corpses at varying degrees of decomposition. The dead mock the young men's superficial outlook, and in what was to become a classic motif of

Memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'

, among others; some depictions are either fanciful or to badly drawn or indistinct to believe as from life. The treatment of the birds is so consistent it has been suggested that they were designed by a single hand, although with the weaker examples, he had perhaps been accompanied by a less familiar assistant. The page illustrating

Psalm 53 Psalm 53 is the 53rd psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate trans ...

, ''The Fool Hath said in his heart, There is no God'', shows a man drinking from a chalice, a typical attribute of the fool, signifying drunkenness. He is held back by another man who holds his long hood and beats him. This second character probably comes from the tradition of depicting the fool as a yokel or madman clutching a cudgel. The first fool has variously been identified as a drunkard, a monk, and Archbishop

Baldwin of Luxembourg Baldwin of Luxembourg (c. 1285 – 21 January 1354) was the Archbishop- Elector of Trier and Archchancellor of Burgundy from 1307 to his death. From 1328 to 1336, he was the diocesan administrator of the archdiocese of Mainz and from 1331 to 13 ...

. A contemporary viewer would have likely recognised him as a Jew.The fool as a monk is found in the Jérome Pichon sales catalog of 1897. W.G. Land's "The Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg: A Personal Document" (1980) proposed Archbishop Baldwin. He is identified as a Jew in Mellinkoff (''Outcasts'', vol. 1). Avril (''Manuscript Painting at the Court of France: The Fourteenth Century'' (1978)) and Sterling (''La Peinture médiévale à Paris, 1300–1500'', vol. 2 (1990)) also see him as a Jew, or an "expression of anti-Judaism". Both men contain elements of the grotesque, and are executed in

against a deep blue background. The bas-de-page contains two lions gnawing at the Bonne of Luxembourg coat-of-arms.Walther, 219 Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg.jpg, ''The Three Living and the Three Dead'', folio 322r File:Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg6.jpg, Folio File:Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg4.jpg, Folio

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Deuchler, Florens. "Looking at Bonne of Luxembourg's Prayer Book". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', New Series, Vol. 29, No. 6 (Feb., 1971), pp. 267–278. * Lermack, Annette. "The Pivotal Role of the Two Fools Miniature in the Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg". '' Gesta'', Vol. 47, No. 2 (2008), pp. 79–98. * Little, Charles; Husband, Timothy. "Europe in the Middle Ages". New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. * Vaurie, Charles. "Birds in the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', volume 29, no. 6, February, 1971 * Walther, Ingo. ''Codices illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts''. Taschen, 2014. * Wixom, William. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', volume 46, no. 3, Winter, 1988–1989

External links

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