New perspectives on Flemish illumination

Abstract

The Proceedings of the Colloquium 'New Perspectives on Flemish Illuminations' constitute an overview of recent research into manuscript illumination in Flanders under the Dukes of Burgundy. In 1959 Leon Delaisse organized the seminal exhibition 'La miniature flamande. Le mecenat de Philippe le Bon' (Flemish Illumination. The Patronage of Philip the Good). Seen in Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris, it was a ground-breaking initiative. In 2015, more than fifty years later, our knowledge of the illuminated manuscript in the Southern Netherlands during the Burgundian period has vastly increased, as revealed in the exhibition 'Miniatures flamandes 1404-1482' (Flemish Miniatures 1404-1482) held in Brussels and Paris in 2011-2012. The associated Colloquium stimulated fifteen papers, by leading specialists in the field, presented here in five sections. The first concentrates on individual illuminators: Jan de Tavernier, the Master of the Houghton Miniatures, the Painters of Philip the Good's Alexander and Loyset Liedet; the second considers text, traditions and images; the third, on the relationships between illumination and panel painting, is followed by codicological studies developing the topics of artistic Interchange, border decoration and portraits in musical manuscripts. The final section consists of technical studies of grisaille illuminations and methods of flesh painting. Through new research techniques and topics, together with established approaches such as connoisseurship and codicology, the papers advance our understanding of the intentions, processes, chronology and geographic distribution of Flemish manuscript production.