Exhibition of Medieval Books of Hours at the Getty
Exhibition of Medieval Books of Hours at the Getty
Ruskin Hours initial D — Getty Museum
From August 31 , 2021 to February 22, 2022, the Getty Museum in California presents an exhibition dedicated to the Books of Hours, one of the most common types of illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.
Source: Getty Museum, Malibu, California. Image: Initial D: The Nativity; Initial V: A monk in prayer (detail), from a book of hours (“Ruskin Hours”; Latin text), northeastern France, circa 1300, artist unknown. J. Paul Getty Museum.
Like all medieval illuminated manuscripts, each Book of Hours is unique. There are famous examples, such as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, the great masterpiece of Gothic illumination by the Limbourg Brothers, and other more modest examples dedicated to more humble individuals.
The exhibition “Transcending Time: The Medieval Book of Hours” brings together medieval Books of Hours from the museum’s own collection, which has one of the finest collections of illuminated manuscripts in the world after acquiring, in 1983, the 144 manuscripts of the Ludwig Collection of Germany, a group that has since been enriched with other acquisitions, such as the Northumberland Bestiary, purchased in 2007 for a price that, according to some sources, was in the region of $20 million. Timothy Potts, the Museum’s director, explained in a press release that the books of hours account for approximately a quarter of the Getty Museum’s total manuscript collection.
The exhibition is divided into three sections: the first, “Structuring Time”, focuses on the Hours of the Virgin, a set of prayers in eight sections, called canonical hours, which were recited at regular intervals throughout the day. “Personal Time” shows the shift in the late Middle Ages from church-centred public worship to more private devotional practices. The final section of the exhibition, “Changing Markets”, explains how the demand for books of hours increased in the late Middle Ages as literacy and social mobility increased. #2021 #JPaulGettyMuseum #Medieval #theartwolf
