Jean Carpentin's Book of Hours

In the 1470s, one of the most innovative artists working in Bruges illuminated a Book of Hours for Jean Carpentin, lord of Granville and prominent citizen of Normandy. Known as the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book after one of his other works, this artist and members of his workshop enriched the pages of Carpentin's manuscript with miniatures, historiated initials, and boldly colored borders in which human figures, monsters, and monkeys are framed by twisting branches of acanthus. The manuscript's rich program of illumination includes 22 full-page miniatures, 42 historiated initials, and 64 borders incorporating biblical and apocryphal subjects as well as the Master's characteristically stocky peasants engaged in quotidian (and sometimes profane) activities. The Carpentin Hours is virtually unknown to scholarship. The present study is the first detailed assessment of this important manuscript, which is a magnificent demonstration of the Dresden Master's wit, invention, and technical virtuosity.