Savoi(re)'s Musical Flowers - Part 1
After over a year of silence (although Servir Antico's Facebook page has served also as depository of images), I return to this blog with another Book of Hours from 15th century France.
This manuscript, illuminated by the master of the 'Heures de Louis de Savoie' and an anonymous Flemish artist, is absolutely exquisite. Not only the amount of skillfully ornate pages have called my attention, (I was impressed over and over again leafing through the pages), but the union of symbolisms and imagery used during the period make it particularly captivating. Each illumination, embraced by a constant flow of flowers, are at times more reminiscent of mid 15th century German manuscripts (as the ones decorated by Berthold Furtmeyr) than French ones, with the boldness of its lines and use of colors (although the French filigree motives are used throughout).
On the other hand, the depth of the larger scenes recalls some of the masters of the Italian Trecento and Quattrocento, with the use of architecture and space, and at times of the Flemish masters with the attention to realistic detail such as the pearls that seem to be pasted into the book.
Luckily enough, the artists also decided to include a good number of instruments in the images, and we find a wealth of organetti, harps, plucked and bowed stringed instruments and even some musician-devils.




































































Horae ad usum Romanum, dites Heures de Louis de Savoie
BNF Latin 9473