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This precious volume was obviously highly prized by its owner, the French-born King of Navarre, who had his coat of arms painted on no less than twenty folios. Rather than directly commissioning this manuscript from a specific workshop, it seems that Charles the Noble acquired his book of hours -- perhaps ready-made for the luxury market -- while on a trip to Paris in 1404-05. A collaborative effort, six painting styles are evidenced within the pages of this codex, those of two Italians, two Frenchmen, and two Netherlanders. The painter who was responsible for the planning and decoration of the book, and who produced seventeen of the large miniatures, was a Bolognese artist known as the Master of the Brussels Initials. His principal assistant, responsible for most of the borders, was a Florentine who signed his name "Zecho" da Firenze on folio 208 verso.
France, Paris
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Codex: 20.3 x 15.7 x 7 cm (8 x 6 3/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies. This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
Flanders, Ghent and Bruges, late 15th century
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Codex: 22.5 x 15.2 cm (8 7/8 x 6 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
France, 18th century
tapestry weave; silk, wool, cotton
Overall: 358 x 269.3 cm (140 15/16 x 106 in.)
Gift of Flora Whitney Miller, Barbara Whitney Henry, and Major Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, in memory of their mother, Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney
Egypt, Middle Kingdom (2040–1648 BCE), Dynasty 12
flint
Overall: 5 cm (1 15/16 in.)
Gift of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt
Jacob Hurd
American, Boston, Massachusetts 1702/3–1758 Boston, Massachusetts
Overall: 10 3/8 x 10 1/16 in. (26.4 x 25.6 cm); 41 oz. 14 dwt. (1296.9 g)
Foot: Diam. 4 5/8 in. (11.7 cm)
Lip: Diam. 5 15/16 in. (15.1 cm)
Body: H. 6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm); 31 oz. 3 dwt. (968.7 g)
Cover: 4 3/16 x 6 1/8 in. (10.6 x 15.6 cm); 10 oz. 11 dwt. (328.2 g)
medium: Silver
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 52.170a, b 1952
Morris K. Jesup Fund, 1952