3-042-329 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Office of the Dead; Llangattock Hours, 1450s. Additional info: This finely illustrated book of hours takes its name from the Baron Llangattock, who owned the book in the 1900s. The manuscript is of particular interest because a number of its miniatures are closely related to compositions by the celebrated panel painter Jan van Eyck. The influence of van Eyck's style is most clearly seen in the manuscript's fourteen full-page miniatures. A full-page miniature opens each of the book's major texts, with eight devoted to the Hours of the Virgin, the most important section of a book of hours. The suffrages, or prayers addressed to individual saints, are illustrated with a series of historiated initials. A number of artists participated in illuminating the manuscript, and in at least one example two illuminators collaborated on a single miniature, which required a high level of coordination. The anonymous artists known as the Master of the Llangattock Hours and the Master of the Llangattock Epiphany are both named for their work in this manuscript.