012

  • Book of Hours: Crucifixion Scene Opening the Hours of the Cross

  • ca. 1425-50
  • Parisian Workshop (French)
  • Hand painted with gold leaf on vellum
  • 15.5 x 11.6 cm., 6-1/8 x 4-1/16"
  • Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts Purchase, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2000.13

Essay by Mary Em Kirn, Professor Emerita of Art History

Over sixteen hundred years ago, during the Roman Empire, a major shift occurred in how information was stored, moving from the system of a roll or tablet to the format of a codex (book) (Brown 42 and 119). Thus, from the 4th century to the 1450s, all codices were written and illustrated by hand (Calkins 201-231). Using parchment or vellum (paper made from animal skins), these hand-written manuscripts were laboriously created by scribes in imperial workshops and later in monasteries and secular workshops.

By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, among wealthy aristocrats, the most popular format for a personal prayer book was a "book of hours" (Wieck 9-10). Usually small-scale, these highly portable hand-written books were divided into the eight canonical hours of the day and images of the Crucifixion are usually found in one of two places (Wieck 79-81). Based on the text, we are looking at the opening section of the Hours of the Holy Cross.

The narrative of Christ's passion begins in the lower right. Wearing a crown of thorns, Christ is being pulled toward Calvary by a man whose tongue lolls from his mouth, an indication that physical ugliness is connected to spiritual disbelief. To the lower left an angel kneels in prayer and gazes at the prominent image of the Crucifixion (Hall 81-86). The narrative of Christ's passion begins in the lower right. To Christ's right are his mother Mary, dressed in her traditional colors of blue, red and white and his "most beloved" disciple, John the Evangelist, who is always shown as a young man. To Christ's left, are two men, probably representing the disbelievers who scoffed at His suffering. Thus, this 15th-century French book of hours is an exquisite example of the period when hand-written and illustrated books were the major method of storing and disseminating information.