Fil:Prayer book of Maria d'Harcourt - Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin MsGermQuart42 - f19v.jpg

(active in the 1410s)

Prayer-book of Maria of Gueldern before 1415 Vellum, 18,1 x 13,4 cm Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

This folio is from the prayer-book represents Maria of Gueldern as the Virgin Mary. The artist of the prayer-book is referred to as the Master of the Prayer-book of Maria of Gueldern.

In the early 15th century, cultural life in the northern part of the Low Countries (the part which is now modern Holland) was not concentrated in the cities. In their patronage of the arts the dukes and princes, who were closely related to the Paris and Burgundy royal families and maintained close political links with them, selected the most progressive and, at the same time, most distinguished stylistic movement of the period, the International Gothic style.

This miniature from the prayer-book of Maria of Gueldern also follows the sophisticated, elegant Parisian models. The duchess is standing in a flower garden surrounded by a wall and is reading a prayer-book, whose corner is held by an angel. Another angel is flying towards her, carryin a scroll inscribed "Ave Maria". God the Father appears in the upper part of the picture, sending towards her the dove of the Holy Ghost. What else is this than an Annunciation? Indeed, the duchess who longed to be blessed with children appears in the guise of the Virgin, whose name she bears. Who knows whether it was her ambitious idea or the illuminator's flattering gesture, to make her adopt a role in one of the holiest events in the life of the Virgin? The ambiguity of the picture is further enhanced by the text on the scroll, which hardly differs from that of the angelic salutation, and by the representation of the two angels, instead of the Archangel Gabriel alone.

The elegant figure of the duchess fills up most of the surface of the miniature; indeed, her long train sweeps out of the garden and covers the marginal decoration. (Her highly fashionable robe shows her to be an actual person and not the Virgin Mary.) The swaying flowers, placed in a regular pattern along the fence of the bower, are in a fine harmony with the live geometry of the marginal decoration, the flowers of similar form, which stand out from the plane, while the colour of the opening in the sky, and God the Father appearing in it, seem to echo the duchess's gown and the lower part of the curve of her train. Only gossamer-fine white lines convey God's figure, depicted in the same colour as the sky. The way in which the dove of the Holy Ghost is created from the same airily delicate lines is particularly fine, and gives an impression of unbelievable lightness.

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Author: MINIATURIST, Netherlandish Title: Prayer-book of Maria of Gueldern Time-line: 1401-1450 School: Flemish Form: illumination