The Book of Hours of Jeanne d'Èvreux

The Book of Hours of Jeanne d'Èvreux is a true masterpiece of late medieval calligraphy. This fine work was commissioned by King Charles IV of France for his wife, Jeanne d'Èvreux, and was furnished with masterful grisaille paintings by the artist Jean Pucelle. Next to the 25 full-page miniatures, the 700+ fascinating marginal figures that populate the entire manuscript like something from a fantasy world are particularly fascinating.

A Kingly Wedding Gift

Charles IV, “the Fair”, commissioned the renowned French miniaturist Jean Pucelle with the task of creating the book of hours for his beloved wife, Jeanne d'Èvreux (1310–1371). The book is most likely either a wedding gift or from the occasion of Charles’ coronation in Reims Cathedral. King Charles, the last Capetian ruler of France, died in 1328, leaving Jeanne a widow. The Book of Hours would end up in the ownership of King Charles V, whose brother, Duke Jean de Berry, was a passionate collector and patron of a multitude of manuscripts. The book was first mentioned in the library of the Duke of Berry*, but suddenly appeared in the **collection of the Rothschild family in 19th century, who would later allow the sale of the item to the Metropolitan Museum, where it safely stored as one of its paramount highlights of its collection to this day keep.

The Art of Grisaille Painting

Upon first glance, one will immediately notice the extensive grey tones that prevail throughout the book of hours. Moreover, the lack of gilded artwork was an intentional design choice by Jeanne d'Èvreux. One must keep in mind that this artistic configuration of the book is a true tour de force! The 25 full-page miniatures, along with the multitude of small figures, initials, and bas-de-page-miniatures, are executed with grisaille technique. Mainly due to the utilization of various grey tones, wonderfully shaded, plastic figures and scenes are distributed throughout the book individually and partially – be it in bright red or blue or in delicate purple or turquoise – colored and really come into their own through this reduced color scale. Jean Pucelle, who had been inspired by other contemporary Italian Trecento painting, erected a truly impressive example of a book that, despite its small size of 9,4 x 6,4 cm, exudes tremendous artistic beauty.

Fantastic Flourish and Spiritual Events

Paired amongst the 29 miniature pages are eight scenes from the childhood and Passion of Christ juxtaposed with the life of much celebrated French King Louis IX, who was an ancestor of Jeanne. Up to the depiction of Christ suffering on Calvary during his Crucifixion, all the scenes are richly imbued with architectural elements in the frames of the pages. The scenes are elaborately painted in detail. A wild bustle takes place around these main scenes: as atlases that carry the frame, initial and marginal figures, bas-de-page miniatures or just somewhere between the lines of the text, precious miniature painting of countless figures and miracles populate the 209 leaves.

Entertaining Variety

There are animals such as monkeys or dogs, people of all classes and classes such as musicians, soldiers, beggars, bishops or virgins, and finally fantastic creatures that seem to have sprung from the wonder world of a Hieronymus Bosch. Wondrous bearded creatures with fish tails and angel wings and hybrids of humans and animals literally romp about the pages. Some of them illustrate the everyday world of the time with games such as jousting or biblical stories like the murder of the innocents in Bethlehem. Others simply offer an entertaining change in addition to the liturgical texts and prayers that have been uniformly put on a very thin, almost transparent parchment by a master scribe.