Hours of Charles the Noble, King of Navarre (1361-1425): fol. 82vr, Presentation in the Temple (Nones) (c. 1405): Art, History and Details

Hours of Charles the Noble, King of Navarre (1361-1425): fol. 82vr, Presentation in the Temple (Nones) (c. 1405) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Master of the Brussels Initials and Associates (French).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This precious volume was obviously highly prized by its owner, the French-born King of Navarre, who had his coat of arms painted on no less than 20 folios. Rather than directly commissioning this manuscript from a specific workshop, it seems that Charles the Noble acquired his book of hours—perhaps ready-made for the luxury market—while on a trip to Paris in 1404–5. A collaborative effort, it contains six painting styles within its pages, those of two Italians, two Frenchmen, and two Netherlanders. The painter who was responsible for the planning and decoration of the book, and who produced 17 of the large miniatures, was a Bolognese artist known as the Master of the Brussels Initials. His principal assistant, responsible for most of the borders, was a Florentine who signed his name "Zecho" da Firenze on folio 208 verso.

Object facts

• Title: Hours of Charles the Noble, King of Navarre (1361-1425): fol. 82vr, Presentation in the Temple (Nones)
• Date: c. 1405
• Creator attribution: Master of the Brussels Initials and Associates (French)
• Culture: France, Paris
• Type: Bound Volume
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Codex: 20.3 x 15.7 x 7 cm (8 x 6 3/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1964.40.83.a

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.