Organisation
J. Paul Getty Museum, The Royal Academy of Arts, London and The British Library
From the museum website
This exhibition offers the first comprehensive view of the greatest epoch in Flemish illumination, featuring more than 130 of the finest and most ambitiously illuminated manuscripts produced in Flanders (southern Netherlands and northern France) between 1470 and 1560. The period covered begins with the reign of the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold, continues through the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and ends with the death of the artist Simon Bening. The great artistic innovations that flourished during this time influenced paintings, drawings, and other mediums across the art world. Spanning the Middle Ages and early modern world, the period also marks the last great phase of manuscript illumination, just before the rise of the printed book reduced the art of illumination to a minor medium. The exhibition centers on the art and careers of the period’s most important artists, such as Simon Marmion, the Master of Mary of Burgundy, Gerard Horenbout, and Simon Bening. It examines the degree to which the style of their remarkable decorations, the naturalism of their miniatures, and the illusion created by their floral-pattern borders came to be identified with Flemish glory and Hapsburg power.
Catalogue
Thomas Kren, Scot McKendrick and Maryan Wynn Ainsworth, Illuminating the Renaissance: the triumph of Flemish manuscript painting in Europe
Catalogue of an exhibition held in 2003 in Los Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) and London (Royal Academy of Arts)
ISBN 0-89236-703-2 (hardbound; J. Paul Getty Museum)
ISBN 0-89236-704-0 (paperbound; J. Paul Getty Museum)
ISBN 1-903973-25-2 (hardbound; Royal Academy of Arts)
ISBN 1-903973-28-7 (paperbound; Royal Academy of Arts)
Other venue
London, Royal Academy of Arts (25 November 2003-22 February 2004)