Rohan Hours

Patron The Hours was probably commissioned by Yolande of Aragon (also Iolanthe, Jolantha, and Violant), daughter of Juan I of Aragon, Duchess of Anjou (1380–1443) for her nephew, Charles, the Dauphin of France. Yolande was the widow of Louis II, Duke of Anjou (reigned 1384–1417). In 1422, Yolande married her oldest daughter to Charles, in which case this book could have been commissioned as a wedding gift. Yolande was the protector and mentor of Charles, who would be crowned Charles VII of France in 1429. Duchess Yolande was a strong supporter of Joan of Arc. An alternate theory suggests that The Hours was commissioned by the House of Rohan, as indicated by their arms shown on some of the pages (blazon: gules, in chief seven mascles d’or). The commission would have been made in 1431 to celebrate the marriage of Charles of Anjou, Count of Maine, to a daughter of Alain IX of Rohan, however that marriage never took place. Artists . As with many northern European artists of this period, the identity of the Rohan Master is shrouded in mystery. The Rohan Master was the anonymous illuminator who is named after this masterpiece of 15th-century illumination. Scholars assume that the Rohan Master headed a large, productive workshop that had the favor and patronage of the House of Anjou. The first studies of the miniatures indicated that the Rohan Master only painted 3 and a half of the full page miniatures. Since the Master illuminated so little of the book, it was not known whether he was a painter, or an entrepreneur. Meiss and Thomas ascribe ten of the eleven surviving full page miniatures to the Rohan Master, as well as three half page miniatures: folio 33v, Plate 36; f. 210, Pl. 79; and f. 217, Pl. 93. Meiss references altar panels that the Rohan Master had painted, proving he was more than an entrepreneur; he was a skilled painter of church art, as well as a dramatic miniaturist. The BnF also has a Boccaccio by him and his workshop. The Rohan Master's miniatures are highly emotional. He used the angle of the face, hair, gestures, and draping of veils and clothing to convey his figures’ emotions. Such expressiveness was not usual in 15th-century France. Meiss suggests that the Rohan Master came from the Netherlands, Germany, Provence, or Catalonia, the homeland of his patroness, Yolande. == Description ==

Vellum, 239 folios, 11.4 x 8.3 in. (290 x 210 mm), with 11 full page, 54 half page, and 227 small miniatures, decorated with egg tempera colors and gold leaf. By the beginning of the 15th century, the calendar was followed by a Gospel lesson from each of the evangelists. In The Rohan Hours, the Gospels are accompanied by evangelist portraits, showing the Four Evangelists writing as medieval scribes, and showing their symbols: John, an eagle; Luke, an ox; Matthew, an angel; and Mark, a lion. At the beginning of each hour, the artists portrayed a standard cycle of illuminations, based on the life of the Virgin. The Rohan Hours contains The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, The Presentation in the Temple, The Flight into Egypt, and The Coronation of the Virgin. The Nativity and The Adoration of the Magi from the cycle are presumed lost. The Penitential Psalms were recited to help one resist the temptation of committing any of the Seven Deadly Sins. The prayers in the Office of the Dead were prayed to shorten the time a loved one spent in Purgatory. Supplementary texts were added to celebrate any personal patron, family saint, special circumstances, or a fortuitous event. The Suffrages are short prayers to saints, asking them to intercede on behalf of the petitioner. The prayers were often accompanied by portraits of the saints, with the symbols or their martyrdom, or the attributes of their patronage. The Suffrages were arranged in a particular hierarchy: God, Christ, the Virgin Mary, the angels, Saint John the Baptist, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and women saints. This standard pattern of daily prayer provided the framework for the artists' efforts. This book of hours contains: :::A Calendar of feast days, :::Fragments of the four Gospels, :::Fragments of the Passion, :::Various prayers to Christ and the Virgin, :::The Five Sorrows of the Virgin, :::The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, :::The Seven Penitential Psalms, :::Various litanies and prayers, :::The Hours of the Cross, :::The Hours of the Holy Spirit, :::The Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, :::The Seven Petitions to Our Lord, :::Prayer to the True Cross, :::Office of the Dead, :::The Suffrages, a Memorial of the Saints, and :::Stabat Mater. On every page not occupied by a full page miniature, The Hours has a marginal scene from the Old Testament. As a whole, this series of marginal miniatures forms a secondary book, a Bible moralisée. Each marginal miniature depicts an Old Testament scene that is somehow related to the principal New Testament picture on the same page. The purpose of the marginal scene was to show how the Old Testament paved the way for that particular New Testament scene, according to the theological theory called typology. Some marginal scene captions are mere descriptions of the biblical vignette. Other captions contain a moralization or short explanation of the moral of the scene, for the spiritual education of the reader; hence the name, Bible moralisée. The Hours ends abruptly at the Stabat Mater. Either the ending pages are missing, or more likely, this book of hours was never completed. Text and script The text is written according to the use of Paris. The principal Latin text was written in Gothic script by two scribes. The first scribe has a somewhat unskilled hand; the second has a clear, elegant Parisian hand. The calendar text was written in red, gold, and blue ink, depending on the particular feast. The Gospels were written in alternating lines in blue, gold, and red inks. The text specific to the liturgical hours was written in Latin with black, and rarely blue, ink. In the margins, the Bible moralisée is written in Old French with black ink. The Latin prayers have masculine endings. Even though this book was commissioned by a woman, it was meant for use by a man. Decoration These volumes come from a period when Books of Hours were produced for their artistic and decorative effect. The Master's border decorations are delicate, foliate motifs reminiscent of the Anjou family's Bible moralisée. The miniatures are stylistically similar to those of the Grandes Heures and the Belles Heures, which Yolande purchased from her brother-in-law, the Duke de Berry's estate, after his death in 1416. The dark and dramatic tone of The Hours may reflect the tragic defeat of the French at Battle of Agincourt, 25 October 1415. The Rohan Master broke with convention by portraying the unexpected and the shocking. He illuminates the calendar in vertical boxes, which normally would contain the calendar text. In The Resurrection (f. 159, Pl. 61), the Master unexpectedly depicts Christ, identified by the wounds of his Passion, as an aged man on a rainbow. Perhaps, this was his attempt to show the Trinity in a new and different way. In The Coronation of the Virgin (f. 106v., Pl. 54), the coronation is not conducted by Christ, as was usually the case; rather, she is received by God the Father, while his angels honor her by reciting from the liturgy of the Feast of the Assumption. The Master shows the glorious Resurrection of the Dead in a shocking way. The faithful are resurrected in the same state in which they had died: feeble infant, maiden, and infirm elder. This contradicts the 15th-century expectation that every Christian would be resurrected in a young, strong, beautiful body—in the prime of life. The Master's flat landscapes and background are unconventional. The Master and his assistants did not take much interest in the developing depiction of three-dimensional space and naturalistic lighting found in most of the best quality manuscripts of this date. The Master was not interested in depicting realistic scenes. The backgrounds provide a stage for his emotionally expressive figures. Many seemingly plain blue backgrounds upon closer examination show a flurry of activity as a multitude of angels are discovered delicately traced in gold. He portrays profound emotions by using intense colors, comparing motion with stasis, and contrasting lean and plump figures. By contrasting beauty and joy with ugliness and pain, the Rohan Master creates a unique and dramatic spiritual art. The epitome of the Master's art is the Lamentation of the Virgin (f. 135, Pl. 57) from the Hours of the Cross section, of The Rohan Hours. The grieving Virgin cannot be consoled by Apostle John, who looks up in consternation at a saddened God. The marginal Bible moralisée subject matter and treatment were based on a book in the possession of Yolande of Aragon, Duchess of Anjou. Her husband, Louis II of Anjou, brought a Bible moralisée from Naples, but it was probably made in Bologna. It is known as the Angevin Bible (Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. fr. 9561). There is no doubt the Rohan atelier assistants charged with decorating the margins used the Duke's book as their model. Not only was the subject matter copied from the Angevin Bible, but the errors in the captions were copied, too. Reproductions In 1973, the publisher, George Braziller, produced a partial facsimile. All the miniatures are reproduced in full color with gold. Millard Meiss provided an artistic and historical Introduction to the manuscript. The facsimile pages were accompanied with notes and commentaries by Marcel Thomas. This book was issued as a 247-page crimson cloth hardback. In 1994, the publisher, George Braziller, released a 248-page, hardback edition. In 2006, a complete color facsimile bound in leather, issued with a separate 377-page commentary in Spanish (Grandes Horas de Rohan) was produced by A y N Ediciones, Madrid, Spain. == References ==