Illuminated Manuscript Show at The Morgan Library
Museums And Galleries Shows To SeePublished November 10, 2009 at 1:09 pm No CommentsThere is a fantastic show at The Morgan Library on Madison Avenue in New York City of; The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, “the most important and lavish of all Dutch manuscripts as well as one of the most beautiful among the Morgan’s collection.”
I have long been a big fan of illuminated work from the middle ages and rennaisance. This is, as is stated above,the most lavish of the Dutch masters. The work is incredibly intricate and small but contains worlds of imagination, devotion and visual political rhetoric. For instance the last page of the manuscript has god granting Catherine, the commissioner of the book, entrance into heaven.
The book that is on display, (the pages have been broken up so they can be viewed one by one) is what is called a “book of hours.” It symbolizes the prayer ritual one should do during each hour of the day and each day of the week. In the morning upon waking, pray this prayer, in mid morning this one etc… on Friday pray this one and on Saturday this one.
Every border of this enormous volume is unique. No two are alike. As with all books from this date 1500′s and earlier, the work is highly inventive. The patterns in the background work is both extremely graphic and appears to my eye very modern. These patterns could be fabrics walking through the fashion district in New York City today, if the wearer were lucky. The compositional design is freer than any work that came after it until French poster work of the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. The only limit to how images are laid out and presented to the viewer is the imagination of the creator.
The level of craft is unmatched today. That is right, I am saying that there is no one in any field on the earth today who is as capable of creating such a piece of work. If anyone reading this believes otherwise I would love them to send me information on such items that are being created today.
A trip to The Morgan Library is always worthwhile but this show, along with the two other shows that opened the same day, Rome After Raphael and Flemish Illumination in the Era of Catherine of Cleves make the trip even better.
