2-733-610 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Calendar Page for May (recto) and Calendar Page for June (verso) (2 of 3 Excised Leaves), c. 1510. The use of bright orange-reds combined with deep blues, greens, and an abundance of gold wash is characteristic of this artist. He used fine parallel lines, or hatching, in gold to indicate the shading, highlights, and texture of draperies, suggesting he was familiar with the printmaker's art. His figures have large, thickly lined oval faces, and there is a profusion of winged putti, swags, urns, garlands, scallop shells, pilasters, and masks—elements easily assembled in different ways so that no two frames were identical. In the late 1400s and early 1500s Rouen was an established and important center of book production; the city's cathedral had a wealthy chapter that spent large sums of money to commission books and maintain its extensive library.