french illuminated manuscripts in the j. paul getty museumby thomas kren;flemish manuscript painting...

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French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum by Thomas Kren; Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context by Elizabeth Morrison; Thomas Kren Review by: Nicole Hochner The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Fall, 2008), pp. 844-845 Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20479064 . Accessed: 12/06/2014 19:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Sixteenth Century Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.44.78.113 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:00:09 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museumby Thomas Kren;Flemish Manuscript Painting in Contextby Elizabeth Morrison; Thomas Kren

French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum by Thomas Kren; FlemishManuscript Painting in Context by Elizabeth Morrison; Thomas KrenReview by: Nicole HochnerThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Fall, 2008), pp. 844-845Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20479064 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 19:00

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheSixteenth Century Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.113 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:00:09 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museumby Thomas Kren;Flemish Manuscript Painting in Contextby Elizabeth Morrison; Thomas Kren

844 Sixteenth Century Journal XXXIX/3 (2008)

French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Thomas Kren. Los Ange les: Getty Publications, 2007. 96 pp. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-89236-858-7.

Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context. Ed. Elizabeth Morrison and Thomas Kren. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2007. 160 pp. $60.00. ISBN 978-0-89236-852-5.

REVIEWED BY: Nicole Hochner, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Each of the two books under review aims at a very different readership. The first, French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum, adopts a nonscholarly approach and offers an introduction followed by the reproduction of more than one hun dred miniatures. This is not an expensive art book, yet its primary ambition is to engage the reader with the beauty of its pictures, with close-up details of luxury religious and secular texts all superbly reproduced in color. This book obviously does not pretend to tell the whole history of French manuscript illumination, but it does illustrate many aspects of it by highlighting treasures from the museum's collection. The focus on French material is justi fied initially by the fact that France was for a long period "the greatest center of manuscript illumination in all of Europe" but also by the wealth of the Getty collection, including illu

minated manuscripts mainly from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries that offer a varied array of French art.

The book follows a chronological order opening with the Carolingian reform in script and its cultural revival exemplified by fragments from a Carolingian Bible with decorated initials (ca. 845). There follow samples from the Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic peri ods that give us some idea of the different styles, with rigid figures on the one hand and more naturalistic portrayals aiming at psychological expressiveness on the other. Emphasis is given to both decorated initials and the new fashion for marginal illumination in the thir teenth century. These samples tell us a lot about the audiences and the type of luxury vol umes produced for the elites, beginning with Bibles, liturgical and devotional books, then Psalters, bestiaries, and books of hours, and much later lavish secular books, often written in the vernacular. They also tell us about cultural encounters with artists from Italy or Flan ders bringing to France their skills and their own fashions. This book also contributes to our understanding of the relationship between images and texts; for instance, the leaf from the Morgan Picture Bible (ca. 1250) is a superb large-scale testimony to a Bible that had origi nally no text. Its extraordinary storytelling is exclusively based on images and in many aspects is to be related to stained glass. Finally, Thomas Kren importantly underlines the relationship between paintings and manuscript illuminations, since one history cannot be fully appreciated in ignorance of the other. In conclusion, this book has no academic pre tensions, but its modest approach is precisely the strength of this very valuable volume. It offers a lucid and illuminating introduction with superb color reproductions and provides the curious, but not necessarily specialized, public a chance to see inaccessible masterpieces and to peruse with delight some of the invaluable treasures from the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The second volume, Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context, comprises a collection of fourteen essays, thirteen of which were produced for two symposia held at the Getty

Museum and the Courtland Institute in conjunction with the 2003 exhibit, "Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe." It is edited by two of the curators of that show, Elizabeth Morrison and Thomas Kren, and aims at a schol arly audience. The essays are accompanied by illustrations, footnotes, a general index, and a useful appendix with the biographies of five Flemish scribes (by Richard Gray) that extends the biographies originally included in the exhibition catalogue.

The fourteen essays are divided into four parts. The first part considers various eclectic

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.113 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:00:09 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museumby Thomas Kren;Flemish Manuscript Painting in Contextby Elizabeth Morrison; Thomas Kren

Book Reviews 845

topics such as a book of hours from the Czech Republic showing its first owners, Jan van der Scaghe and Anne de Memere, with their coat of arms (Lorne Campbell), lavish books with empty margins (Catherine Reynolds), the figure of Alexander the Great in Burgundian ico nography (Chrystele Blondeau), and the role of dress in Charles the Bold's imagery (Marga ret Scott). The second part opens with an essay by Nancy K. Turner, who makes a comparison of the techniques used for manuscript illumination and for painting on panel. Lieve Watteeuw brings us into the complex work of conservation and restoration. Lorne Campbell studies the presentation miniature attributed to Rogier van der Weyden in the Chroniques de Hainaut, painted for Philip the Good. Stephanie Buck delves into the domain of drawing and its relationship with book illumination. Jan van der Stock raises fascinating questions concerning the organization of teams of artists and the character of their collab oration in manuscript production, looking for evidence in archives and correspondences to understand better the world of the workshops that produced lavish manuscripts. The third part is devoted to individual illuminators such as the Master of Fitzwilliam 268 who, Greg ory T. Clarck suggests, was none other than Philippe de Mazerolles, both a libraire and an illuminator (132); Jean Markant, a scribe-miniaturist, whose activity in the trade of books is analyzed by Dominique Vanwijnsberghe; and the Master of the David Scenes, whose unusual style is investigated by Elizabeth Morrison.

The last part is entitled "Directions for Further Research" and includes two short arti cles. The first by James H. Marrow, deals with scholarship on Flemish manuscript illumina tion of the Renaissance and raises stimulating questions regarding, for instance, the fact that devotional codices "seem to have been the primary locus for the cultivation of virtuoso and sometimes extravagant pictorial effects" while secular manuscripts "seem much more con servative and restrained in their design" (165). He urges the historian to think about picto rial manipulations, illusionism and the way the designers of illuminated books fool the eye, "inflect the subjects treated," and even alter its meaning, engaging the viewer to explore "new relationships with pictorial imagery" (174).

Jonathan J. G. Alexander's paper starts with a brief sketch of the research done in the field since Otto Pacht and ends with a manifesto for a commitment to interdisciplinary studies allying technical skills and knowledge with the necessary interpretation that cannot ignore or resist theory. He also believes scholars should avoid "essentializing ethnic or racial difference in the past"' "teleological narratives," and "the distinction between fine and applied art," and that they should give more attention to the reception and function of illu minations and books rather than investing too much energy in determining attributions and classifications (179).

This book is a valuable, erudite, and significant addition to the noteworthy exhibition catalogue, Illuminating the Renaissance. Unlike many companion books, it has a coherent text even though a collection of essays allows a vast array of methods and approaches. It is an inspiring and rich volume for anyone interested in the history of Flemish manuscripts, with technical and material features considered alongside thematic analyses and interpreta tion.

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