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Thomas Kren, Mark Evans, Janet Backhouse, and Nancy Turner. Edited by Thomas Kren with Mark Evans. Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005. — 112 p. — ISBN 978-0-89236-829-7.
Jean Bourdichon was the court painter to four successive French kings including Louis XII and his predecessor, Charles VIII. Bourdichon painted the Hours of Louis XII for the king of France around the time of Louis’s coronation in 1498. Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, October 18, 2005, to January 8, 2006, and at the Victoria and Albert Museum, February 2 to May 1, 2006, A Masterpiece Reconstructed reproduces the books sixteen known miniatures together with a selection of other books illuminated by the artist, by his teacher Jean Fouquet, and by their contemporaries.Janet Backhouse, who originally assembled the evidence that revealed this long-forgotten masterpiece, introduces the Hours of Louis XII and its cycle of miniatures. Thomas Kren discusses the book’s provocative miniature of Bathsheba bathing within the context of the kings own taste and predilections and within the then-emerging genre of the female nude in French painting. Nancy Turner considers the importance of Bourdichon’s painting and illuminating technique in the Hours of Louis XII in relation to his other work. Mark Evans examines the individual histories of each of the surviving patrons of the book. Lastly, an appendix reconstructs the book’s devotional contents and program of illumination.
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A MASTERPIECE RECONSTRUCTED
A MASTERPIECE R E C O N S T R U C T E D THE HOURS of LOUIS XII Edited by THOMAS KREN with MARK EVANS Essays by JANET BACKHOUSE, THOMAS KREN, NANCY TURNER, and MARK EVANS
The J. Paul Getty Museum and The British Library in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum
This publication is issued in conjunction with the exhibition A Masterpiece Reconstructed: The Hours of Louis XII, held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, October 18, 2005, to January 8, 2006, and at the Victoria and Albert Museum, February 2 to May i, 2006. © 2005 J. Paul Getty Trust Getty Publications 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500 Los Angeles, California 90049-1682 www.getty.edu Published in Europe by The British Library 96 Euston Road London NWi 2DB ISBN 0-7123-4908-1 At Getty Publications Christopher Hudson, Publisher Mark Greenberg, Editor in Chief Patrick Pardo, Editor Markus Brilling, Designer Amita Molloy, Production Coordinator Typesetting by Diane Franco Color separations by Professional Graphics, Inc., Rockford, Illinois Printed in Singapore by CS Graphics Pte. Ltd. Unless otherwise specified, all photographs are courtesy of the institution owning the work illustrated. Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of the works of art in this book to obtain permission to publish. Any omissions will be corrected in future editions. In the figure and plate captions for this book, the abbreviation JPGM stands for the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A masterpiece reconstructed : the Hours of Louis XII / Thomas Kren ... [et al.] ; edited by Thomas Kren, with Mark Evans, p. cm. Catalog of an exhibition held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Oct. 18, 2005-Jan. 8, 2006, and at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Feb. 2-May i, 2006. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-I3: 978-0-89236-829-7 (pbk.) ISBN-io: 0-89236-829-2 (pbk.) i. Hours of Louis XII—Illustrations. 2. Books of hours—France—Illustrations. 3. Bourdichon, Jean, 1457?-1521? 4. Illumination of books and manuscripts, French. 5. Illumination of books and manuscripts, Renaissance—France. 6. Louis XII, King of France, 1462-1515—Books and reading. I. Kren, Thomas, 1950II. Evans, Mark L. III. Bourdichon, Jean, 1457?-1521? ND3363.L597M36 2005 745.6Yo944