Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Adoration of the Magi (recto)

Date

c. 1510

Medium

ink, tempera and liquid gold on vellum

Culture

France, Rouen, 16th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Characteristic of the artist's hand, the bright orange-reds combine with deep blues, greens, and an abundance of gold wash in this leaf. He used fine parallel lines or crosshatching in gold to indicate the shading, highlights, and texture of draperies, suggesting some knowledge of printmaking, an art for which Rouen was also an important center. His figures have large, thickly outlined oval faces. This miniature also demonstrates the emerging fashion in both Rouen and Paris for highly involved, Italianate architectural frames: winged putti, swags, urns, garlands, scallop shells, pillasters, and masks. These elements could be assembled in different ways so that no two frames were identical. Rouen in the late 1400s and early 1500s was an established and important center for book production. Richly decorated library texts and books of hours, such as the present leaves, were made in Rouen for sale in the cours des libraires , next to the cathedral.

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