Abstract
The Emerson-White Hours (MS Typ 443–443.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University) is a book of hours and missal produced in Valenciennes, Bruges, and Ghent in the late 1470s or early 1480s. There are seven full-page miniatures (many more have been removed), fourteen historiated borders, 28 historiated initials, and 24 calendar illustrations in tempera and gold. Text pages have shell gold trompe-l’oeil borders. The illuminators include Simon Marmion, the Master of the Houghton Miniatures (named for this manuscript), the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook, and one of the Ghent Associates. The goal of analysis was to determine if identification of palettes supported previous stylistic attributions. Focusing on the illuminations attributed to Simon Marmion and the Houghton Master, we demonstrate that technical analysis can support attribution by identifying differences in artists’ pigment preferences, pigment blending, and technique of paint application, particularly how the artists render shadows.
Highlights
The Emerson-White Hours (MS Typ 443–443.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University) is a book of hours-missal that includes a wide range of liturgical texts and an extensive program of illumination executed in Bruges, Ghent, and Valenciennes ca. 1480
Focusing on the illuminations attributed to Simon Marmion and the Houghton Master, we demonstrate that technical analysis can support attribution by identifying differences in artists’ pigment preferences, pigment blending, and technique of paint application, how the artists render shadows
Historiated initial miniatures attributed to Simon Marmion In addition to the full page illuminations, ff. 14v, 108v, and 115v, there are five historiated initial miniatures attributed to Simon Marmion, ff. 92r, 100r, 119r, 166r and 171r (Fig. 17) [2, 4]
Summary
The Emerson-White Hours (MS Typ 443–443.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University) is a book of hours-missal that includes a wide range of liturgical texts and an extensive program of illumination executed in Bruges, Ghent, and Valenciennes ca. 1480. The Emerson-White Hours (MS Typ 443–443.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University) is a book of hours-missal that includes a wide range of liturgical texts and an extensive program of illumination executed in Bruges, Ghent, and Valenciennes ca. Since 1892, the manuscript has been bound in two volumes foliated, or numbered, consecutively: folios (ff.) 1–118, 119–248. Because both volumes are very tightly bound and because of the fineness with which the parchment was prepared, the collation, that is, the present structure of the gatherings or quires Mayer et al Herit Sci (2018) 6:48 together), had not been worked out until the current project. The text, written in a single gothic rotunda hand in one column, appears to be complete
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