The Hours of Catherine of Cleves (Morgan Library and Museum, now divided in two parts, M. 917 and M. 945, the latter sometimes called the Guennol Hours or, less commonly, the Arenberg Hours) is an ornately illuminated manuscript in the Gothic art style, produced in about 1440 by the anonymous Dutch artist known as the Master of Catherine of Cleves. It is one of the most lavishly illuminated manuscripts to survive from the 15th century and has been described as one of the masterpieces of Northern European illumination.Plummer, John. The Hours of Catherine of Cleves. New York, George Braziller, 1966. Rouse, Richard. Book Review of The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves by John Plummer. Speculum, v. 40, n. 3, 1965. (538-540). This book of hours contains the usual offices, prayers and litanies in Latin, along with supplemental texts, decorated with 157 colorful and gilded illuminations. Today, both parts of the manuscript that forms this book are housed at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.
History
Origin The Hours of Catherine of Cleves (The Hours) was commissioned for Catherine, Duchess of Guelders and Countess of Zutphen, upon the occasion of her marriage to Arnold, Duke of Guelders, on 26 January 1430. John Plummer, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the Morgan Library, suggested that this Horae was commissioned for the wedding in 1430, but it required time to complete. The Hours was produced in Utrecht and not completed until after 1434, probably around 1440. The earlier date is based on the picture of a coin, minted in 1434 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, shown in the border of M. 917, p. 240; Plummer, Plate 117. Wieck, Roger S. Painted Prayers: the Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art. NY: George Braziller, 1997.
Patrons The Hours was commissioned for Catherine of Cleves by either her fatherPlummer, John. The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1964. or her husband. Since the 11th century, the town of Cleves had been the home of the venerable and wealthy Counts of Cleves. The Counts were elevated to a ducal house in 1417, the year Catherine was born. The Cleves family seat is the Schwanenburg, the Swan Castle, with its massive square tower, the Schwanenturm, the Tower of the Knights of the Swan, which is immortalized in Richard Wagner's opera, Lohengrin.
The first two full page miniatures celebrate her illustrious lineage. The first page shows Catherine of Cleves kneeling before the Virgin and the Christ Child, who take a personal interest in her salvation. Catherine is identified by her arms, in the center bottom, shown with those of her husband, Duke Arnold of Guelders. The borders of both pages are decorated with an heraldic display of the Arms of her eight great-great-grandfathers:
Count Diderik of Cleves, Count Engelbert of Mark, Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, Duke Ludwig of Liegnitz, King Jean the Good of France, Duke Lodewijk of Flanders, Duke Wilhelm of Jülich, and Duke Otto of Ravensberg.Morgan
Catherine of Cleves is shown kneeling before The Virgin and the Christ Child, M. 945, folio 1 verso; Plummer, Plate 1. She is shown giving alms in Piety, the sixth gift of the Holy Spirit, M. 917, p. 65; Plummer, Plate 57. Catherine is also shown kneeling, with the Virgin, before Christ, in The Crucifixion, M. 917, p. 160; Plummer, Plate 96. Her husband, Arnold, Duke of Guelders, may be the lord shown kneeling before Christ in Fear of the Lord, the seventh gift of the Holy Spirit, M. 917, p. 58; Plummer, Plate 58. In the reconstructed book, his portrait follows that of Catherine's in Piety. And, some of his coinage is shown in the border of M. 917, p. 240; Plummer, Plate 117.
Artist The Master of Catherine of Cleves was the anonymous illuminator, who is named after this masterpiece of Netherlandish illumination. The Cleves Master might have been a member of the van Aken family of painters. A study of the miniatures indicates that the Cleves Master designed and painted over 157 miniatures, as well as the principal border decorations, with minimal assistance from two workshop assistants.Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600. Köln, TASCHEN, 2005.
The Hours have several anomalies. Hell was usually not depicted in Books of Hours, though normal in the Last Judgements in churches, because the sight was thought unwelcome to the often female patrons. The Master's Mouth of Hell at the beginning of the Office of the Dead actually shows three animal mouths: an uppermost stone-like portal, framed by souls boiling in pots, screams in agony; a lower mouth grimaces, its lips drawn apart by demons; and within that lower mouth, a fire-red creature opens its own jaws.Morgan image The surrounding tableau of demons tormenting the souls of the dead was painted nearly 50 yrs before Hieronymus Bosch painted his. Marginal genre scenes clearly relate to the religious scenes in the main miniatures above. Details of the book, such as traps and nets in borders, relate very closely to details in the Merode Altarpiece by Robert Campin (or a follower), and suggest strongly that the master knew works by Campin.JSTOR, Art Bulletin reprinted in: Meyer Schapiro, Selected Papers, volume 3, Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art, 1980, Chatto & Windus, London, , and: Lane, Barbara G,The Altar and the Altarpiece, Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting, pp. 42–47 Stories flow through successive pictures: a woman watches a man die, weeps, then goes on a pilgrimage; souls within Hell dine upon the Host, and are rescued by an angel. There is little repetition, and the miniatures form a harmonious whole.
Antithesis and unusual iconography conveys irony and humor. Saint James the Less was known for his abstinence, so the border depicts men drinking wine. Saint Gregory, the great Church administrator, is shown with a border of gold and silver coins. Saint Peter is painted with the key of the Church, standing above a triskelion (a reference to the Trinity) of fresh fish as the fisher of men. Saint Lawrence is shown with the grill of his martyrdom, and the alms purse attribute as the patron of the poor. His border shows fresh fish ready for grilling, and the big fish eating the little fish, representing the rich devouring the poor, a common literary and pictorial theme of the 15th and 16th centuries. These fantastic trompe-l'œil borders were to influence the work of the Master of Mary of Burgundy 30 years later.
The Cleves Master was a superb realist who showed scenes of 15th-century Utrecht, especially in the small bas-de-page pictures. The Holy Family at dinner shows Saint Joseph wearing clogs and spooning gruel, while reclining in a barrel chair in front of a lively fire.Image The Virgin is seated on the other side of the fire, suckling Jesus in her neat, orderly kitchen.
By reconstructing The Hours from the two principal manuscripts, one can see the Master grow as an artist over the several years it took to illuminate The Hours. The early miniatures and iconography are comparable to the contemporary panel paintings of Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck, and share many close similarities. The later miniatures are painted with the imagination, originality, and vibrant colors that characterize Early Netherlandish painting and the later developments of that tradition. This originality of technique and awareness of everyday life prompted Delaissé to call the Cleves Master "the ancestor of the 17th century Dutch school of painting."
Modern period After disappearing from view for some 400 years, the Hours of Catherine of Cleves surfaced in 1856. Jacques Joseph Techener, a Parisian book dealer, offered The Hours for sale at 15,000 francs. At some time before 1896, Prince Charles d’Arenberg purchased The Hours (M 945); or rather, he bought half of The Hours.
In 1963, Frederick Adams was offered another Cleves Master Horae (M 917) by an unnamed European owner. A comparison of this discovered book with the Guennol Hours (M 945) revealed that not only were they by the same artist, and from the same workshop, but both Horae were incomplete and complemented each other. This observation suggested that they were once a single volume, which had been deliberately disassembled into two separate liturgical books. Scholars believe that sometime in the 1850s, The Hours was separated into two volumes, and several leaves were removed. Microscopic examination revealed that some of the rubrics had been deliberately erased, so the leaves could be reassembled without a tell-tale break in the text. The two volumes have been recovered; but, the 9–12 missing leaves are presumed lost.
In 1970, the Guennol Hours (M.945) was purchased by the Pierpont Morgan Library through the Belle da Costa Greene Foundation, with additional assistance of various Library Fellows. By studying the text, the iconography, and the physical makeup of the two volumes, John Plummer, Morgan Library Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, reconstructed the original sequence of the original, single volume of the Hours of Catherine of Cleves.
In connection with a 2010 exhibition entitled “Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves,” the Morgan Library disbound the two volumes to display 93 of the illuminations in their original order. After the show which ends on May 2, 2010, the library will rebind the book with the leaves in their proper order.Roberta Smith, Miniature Visions of Life, Faith and Purgatory’s Gaping Maw, New York Times, Jan. 21, 2010
Provenance Catherine, Duchess of Guelders, for whom it was made, 1440–1445 (single volume) Ermengard of Lochhorst, who allegedly received it from Catherine Disappeared for 400 years Jacques Techener, Parisian Book dealer, 1856 (divided into 2 volumes: M 945, M 917; and missing leaves) M 917 Baron Maurice de Rothschild, 1936 (M 917) Frederick Adams, Bookseller, discovers another Cleves Master Horae, 1963 (M 917) Morgan Library and Museum, purchased 1963 (M 917) M945 Prince Charles d'Arenberg, purchased before 1896 (M 945) Duchess Julie d'Arenberg (M 945) Duke Engelbert d'Arenberg (M 945) Duke Engelbert-Marie d'Arenberg exhibited as the Arenberg Hours in Düsseldorf, 1904 (M 945) Hans P. Kraus, Bookseller, 1958 (M 945) Alistair Bradley Martin (Guennol Collection), 1958 (M 945) Exhibited at the Rijksmuseum as the Guennol Hours, 1958 (M 945) Hans P. Kraus, Art Dealer, 1970 (M 945) Morgan Library and Museum, purchased 1970 (M 945)
Description
The book is a Gothic manuscript and book of hours, illuminated by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, and at least two assistants, in Utrecht c. 1440. The book is now bound in two volumes:
M 945 = Vellum, 193 leaves, , with 63 miniatures, bound in 19th-century red velvet.
M 917 = Vellum, 328 leaves, , with 94 miniatures, in a 19th-century binding, with spine marked Heures de Catherine de Cleves / Martyrologie.Morgan There are an estimated 9 to 12 leaves missing, based on the series of saints in the Suffrages. Saint Quirinus, Saint Margaret and two other saints are missing; at least five to eight other leaves are missing, too. The text is Latin in a Gothic script with black and red ink, by a single scribe; there are catchwords and rubricator's notes in other hands.
Contents Books of hours were extremely popular in the late medieval times, and by the date of these hours the most common vehicle for lavish illumination. The books were intended for regular use, by lay people, who wished to structure their devotional life. Observing the canonical hours centered upon the recitation, or singing, of a number of psalms, which are accompanied by prayers, specified by the eight hours of the liturgical day.