The Psalter-Hours of Isabelle of France

Evidence for the patron’s northern connections

Owners

The manuscript contains textual and visual features not found in contemporary French manuscripts.  These features include the addition of readings for feasts of the Virgin with elaborate historiated initials; the insertion of the suffrages and images of saints at Lauds, the second office in the Hours of the Virgin; and the illustration of the Hours of the Virgin with scenes from Christ’s Passion instead of the Nativity cycle common in France. These features, typical of Books of Hours made in Brabant, Hainaut and the diocese of Liège, suggest that the patron had connections with regions north of Paris.

Lightbox: 166
1
Detail of the folds in St John’s dark purple mantle under magnification (12.5x). FORS analysis (below) reveals the presence of ultramarine in the mantle (blue line) and indigo, recognised by its maximum absorbance at 660 nm, in the dark folds (black line).
Lightbox: 167
2
Detail of the chest of Christ under magnification (25x) showing the sophisticated modelling of flesh with brown shadows and white highlights over a light pink base layer.
Lightbox: 168
3
Detail of the faces of Christ and Joseph of Arimathea under magnification (16x) showing the sophisticated modelling of flesh with grey shadows and white highlights over a light pink base layer.

The deep blue and dark purple draperies (hotspot 1), skilfully modelled so as to convey the three-dimensional human anatomy beneath, and the pink flesh tones of Christ’s body (hotspots 2 and 3) characterise the work of Hand D.