Medieval Art Exhibitions at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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| Pol, Jean and Herman de Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, act. 1399-1416). Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (1405-1408/09) (detail: The Duke on a Journey). Ink, tempera and gold leaf on vellum. Leaf: 23.8 x 17 cm (9 3/8 x 6 11/16 in.). The Cloisters Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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Jean de La Huerta (Spanish) and Antoine Le Moiturier (French, d. 1495). Mourner with an Uncovered Head, Both Hands Raised (1443-57). Alabaster. 35.5 x 26 x 12 cm (15 9/16 x 10 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.). Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. |
By STAN PARCHIN
August 15, 2009 In Spring 2010, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will play host to special exhibitions on art and patronage at the courts of late medieval France and Burgundy.
The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
All 172 precious manuscript illuminations from the Belles Heures (1405-1408/9), painted for Jean de France, Duc de Berry (1340-1416) by Franco-Netherlandish artists Pol, Herman and Jean de Limbourg (act. 1399-1416), are displayed in the Robert Lehman Wing (March 2-June 13, 2010). Commissioned by the Valois prince, the luxurious Book of Hours for private devotional prayer was a gem among the bibliophile's collection of some 300 volumes.
The only manuscript that the Limbourg brothers completed, the Belles Heures was recently unbound for conservation and production of a facsimile edition, thus allowing for the unprecedented exhibition of its folios or pages in their entirety. Also on view in The Art of Illumination... are objects from public and private American collections that describe the aristocratic culture of the Valois court.
Lamentation for a Prince: Masterpieces of Medieval Tomb Sculpture from the Court of Burgundy
While the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, France undergoes renovation, it is sending 40 alabaster mourner statuettes (1443-70) from the elaborate tomb of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (r. 1404-1419) and Margaret of Bavaria (1363-1423), his wife, to seven American museums. The pleurants, carved by Jean de La Huerta and Antoine Le Moiturier, are draped monks and cloaked clerics in various sorrowful and contemplative poses. They usually perambulate around the monument's lower register, a flamboyant Gothic arcade that resembles a cloister.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's expanded version of the exhibition debuts appropriately in its Medieval Sculpture Hall (March 2-May 23, 2010). The New York presentation includes related works from the museum's collection, including: the painted and gilded limestone Enthroned Virgin (ca. 1420), an oversized sculpture executed by Claus de Werve (ca. 1380-1439) for the convent at Poligny, Burgundy; and two alabaster Mourners (ca. 1453) from the tomb at Bourges of Jean, the Duke of Berry and uncle of John the Fearless.
Under the title "The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy," the six other American museums on the exhibition's itinerary are: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (June 17-September 12, 2010); the Dallas Museum of Art (October 3, 2010-January 2, 2011); the Minneapolis Institute of Art (January 23-April 17, 2011); the St. Louis Art Museum (May 8-July 31, 2011); the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (August 21-November 13, 2011); and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (December 11, 2011-March 4, 2012). The statuettes conclude their tour at the Musée National du Moyen-Age/Thermes de Cluny in Paris, France. Dates are subject to change.
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