GKS 1612 4°: Liber horarum

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GKS 1612 4°: Liber horarum

Parchment; 50 ff. (I + 1-32 + 32 bis + 33-37 + 37 bis + 38-45 + II, III); 22 × 16 cm; Brügge 1460-1465 (f.1) & Rouen c. 1500 (f. 2-45)

Part of a richly illuminated Book of Hours. On the verso side of the first leave, inserted later, there is an illumination showing the veil of Veronica and, underneath it, a couple in prayer with a landscape behind them. In an inscription attached to the illumination the couple is identified as Charles the Bold and “Marie de Bourbon, his second wife”, and the book is called Heures de Charles de la maison de France, dernier Duc de Bourgogne. In an added signature written on the lower border of the image the illumination is said to have been made by Jacques Undelot in 1465. At least the last of these statements are false. The manipulations may have taken place while the book was in the library of Philippe de Bethune

The illumination itself is a highly qualified piece of art. The artist is anonymous. By some modern scholars he has been identified as Willem Vrelant

Bibl.: Bernard de Montfaucon, Les monumens de la monarchie françoise, III, Paris 1731, p. 347 & pl. LXIV. - L. Delisle, Le Cabinet des manuscrits, I, Paris 1868, p. 268f. & III, Paris 1881, p. 392. - Chr. Bruun, De illuminerede Haandskrifter fra Middelalderen i Det Store Kongelige Bibliothek (= Aarsberetninger og Meddelelser fra Det store kongelige Bibliothek III), København 1890, p. 155-161. - Friedrich Winkler in: Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, XXXII, 1915, p. 294-296. - Af Terkel Klevenfeldts Rejse-Journaler, 1741-45, København 1919, p. 120. - Friedrich Winkler, Die Flämische Buchmalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts. Künstler und Werke von den Brüdern van Eyck bis zu Simon Bening. Leipzig 1925, p. 71 & 175. - Ellen Jørgensen, Catalogus codicum Latinorum medii ævi Bibliothecæ Regiæ Hafniensis, Hafniæ 1926, p. 225. - V. Leroquais, Le Bréviaire de Philippe le Bon, bréviaire parisien du XVe siècle, Bruxelles 1929, p. 155-157 & pl. 11. - C. Nordenfalk & K. Olsen, Gyllene Böcker. Illuminerade medeltida handskrifter i dansk och svensk ägo, Stockholm 1952, p. 74 no. 147. - Bernard Bousmanne, "Item a Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur". Willem Vrelant - un aspect de l'enluminure dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous le mécénat des ducs de Bourgogne, Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire, Tournhout 1997, p. 98 (fig. 59) & 214. - Isabel Klaus in: Il volto di Cristo, [catalogo] a cura di G. Morello & G. Wolf, Roma 2000, p. 193f & 144. - Erik Drigsdahl, A Detailed Guide to the KB Online Facsimile of GKS 1612, Suffragia sanctorum, CHD [online] 2000. - Maryan W. Ainsworth in: Byzantium, faith and power (1261-1557) [catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York], ed. by Helen C. Evans. New Haven & London 2004, p. 560f., cat. no. 333

Erik Petersen