MWW Artwork of the Day (4/13/16) Limbourg Brothers (Dutch, fl. 1385–1416) Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry: Avril (c. 1412-16) Tempera on vellum, 29.4 x 21 cm. Musée Condé, Chantilly
April: The arrival of spring, hope and new life – the grass is green and a newly betrothed couple are exchanging rings in the foreground, accompanied by friends and family. The chateau is another one of the Duc’s, that of Dourdan.
The “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry” is a sumptuously decorated Book of Hours (containing prayers to be said by the lay faithful at each of the canonical hours of the day) commissioned by John, Duke of Berry, around 1410. It is probably the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century, “le roi des manuscrits enluminés” (“the king of illuminated manuscripts”). The Très Riches Heures consists of 416 pages, including 131 with large miniatures and many more with border decorations or historiated initials, that are among the high points of International Gothic painting in spite of their small size. There are 300 decorated capital letters. The book was worked on, over a period of nearly a century, in three main campaigns, led by the Limbourg brothers, Barthélemy van Eyck, and Jean Colombe. The book is now Ms. 65 in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, France.
The most celebrated part of the manuscript is its Calendar. A generalized calendar (not specific to any year) of church feasts and saints’ days, often illuminated, is a usual part of a book of hours, but the illustrations of the months in the Très Riches Heures are exceptional and innovative in their scope, and the best known element of the decoration of the manuscript. Most of them show one of the duke’s castles in the background, and are filled with details of the delights and labors of the months, from the Duke’s court to his peasants, a counterpart to the prayers of the hours. Each illustration is surmounted with its appropriate hemisphere showing a solar chariot, the signs and degrees of the zodiac, and numbering the days of the month and the martyrological letters for the ecclesiastic lunar calendar.
For the rest of this celebrated Calendar, see this MWW Special Collection: * MWW Ancient/Medieval Art
God blessing the animals he created. Look at all the little details, there’s so much talent here!(found in Postilla in Bibliam(Tours - BM - ms. 0052) made by Nicolaus de Lyra in France somewhere around 1500).
The 4th of June, is the feast day of Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne - Saint Eadfrith. Bishop of Lindisfarne from 698 until his death in 721. He is solely responsible for creating the stunning Lindisfarne Gospels. - The first Image is the carpet page introducing the Gospel of Matthew, and the Chi-Rho page, as well as pictures of the book on display in Durham in 2013.
You may be able to listen to this BBC Radio 4 essay about Bishop Eadfrith.
Some of the amazing objects associated with St Cuthbert. His coffin in Durham Cathedral is engraved with the figure of Christ which is surrounded by four Evangelists’ symbols on the lid - also in Old English Runes, on one end the earliest surviving iconic representation of the Virgin and Child outside Rome from the medieval art of the Western Church, with the archangels Michael and Gabriel on the other. The sides show the Twelve Apostles and five archangels.
The Gold and Garnet pectoral cross found in his coffin in 1104 along with the St Cuthbert Gospel - the oldest fully intact bound book in Europe.
Below, the incredible Lindisfarne Gospels created in honour of “God & St Cuthbert”
And finally his tomb in Durham Cathedral.
St Cuthberts Day - 20th March, died on this day in 687
y’know what’s interesting is that I can’t actually show you guys a lot of my more elaborate work.
I do pieces that are MILES beyond what you’ve seen on the merch store or on livestreams, but because they’re commissioned wedding vows, anniversary gifts, eulogies, poems, and other such personalized keepsakes, I don’t post the pieces in their entirety anywhere
But know that if you get commissions from me (store link in descrip) at no price limitations, and bring specific aesthetics you want me to mimic with you, I’m capable of stuff like this:
That’s awesome.
Could you have a donation incentive to do one to be shown off
Well folks, a few days ago I finally finished up this project! I’m very proud of the final result and it feels damn good to have a completed comic under my belt.
Tale of the Harbingers is a short lore comic about the world Stormfall, and its upcoming reboot, takes place in, but mostly this was an artistic exercise. If you like pretty illuminated manuscript style pages, ancient legends, and magic origin stories, check it out!
