ROHAN MASTER: A Book of Hours

Executed at the behest of Yolande of Aragon in the early 15th century, the Rohan Book of Hours is the work of several artists but the principal Rohan Master has a distinctively expressive style where hand gestures or facial expression communicate emotion very directly with the viewer. The Gothic trend in early 15th century painting lent itself to sombre moods and extreme emotions, more so than the Rohan master's great predecessors, the Boucicaut Master and the Limbourgs, although he undoubtedly knew the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry. The Grandes Heures de Rohan starts with a calendar of the months. In March the farmer is cultivating his fruit trees, with a cask on the ground to slake his thirst and the zodiacal sign of Aries apparent in an enormous ram floating above him. In July, two bearded reapers are cutting wheat, while an energetic lion swings its tail in the sky and the marginal painting shows the crucifixion of Christ, with a woman representing the Church emerging from the wound in his side. Other sequences of paintings include extracts from the gospels, the Five Sorrows of the Virgin, penitential psalms, litanies of the saints, hours of the cross, the Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, the office of the dead, and the Stabat Mater. The Seven Petitions is dominated by a huge Christ descending on a rainbow, showing the attenuated limbs typical of this master, and the adjacent Last Judgment bears a famous image regarded as a turning point in the art of the 15th century, featuring the immense head and shoulders of God the Father looking with compassion on a dead man as St Michael vigorously fights off the assault of the devil. One of the most moving paintings shows the Descent from the Cross, with St John supporting a swooning Mary and almost glaring at God in accusation. An adjacent landscape bristles with rocks and is peopled with animals, as a giant shepherd and shepherdess receive the message of the Christmas Angels, the shepherd clumsily dancing in the foreground with a face, it is suggested, painted from life. 21.9 x 30cm, 127 large colour plates in superbly executed reproduction bring this masterpiece to life. A gorgeous and rare volume to treasure. 248pp.
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