Lace Book of Marie de' Medici, Top: Christ before Pilate; Carrying the Cross; Bottom: Man of Sorrows supported by angel; Souls of the blessed brought before God the Father, Walters Manuscript W.494, fol. 2r

This Prayerbook was made for Marie de' Medici in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Beyond its provenance as a personal book owned by the famous queen, it is exceptional for its intricately cut borders, which transform the parchment margins into lace. This effect was created using a technique known as "canivet," in which a small knife was used to cut ornate patterns into paper or parchment. An art form that flourished originally among nuns in France, Germany, and the Netherlands beginning in the sixteenth century, it was employed to exceptional effect in several manuscripts connected with Marie de' Medici. The Walters manuscript, made for her while she was regent of France, and wife of King Henry IV, contains twenty-eight miniatures, including original religious imagery as well as several later additions: a gouache portrait of the elderly queen, and nine small miniatures produced in Bruges ca. 1450 by an artist influenced by the Eyckian and Gold Scrolls styles prevalent at the time; the coat-of-arms of Marie de Medici, as well as her monogram. The Walters manuscript retains its original binding composed of mosaic inlays in green and black leather, as well as fine gilt pointillé foliate tooling, and a replica of the binding was created by Léon Gruel for Henry Walters on one of his seventeenth-century printed books (92.467) that also connects to Marie de' Medici.

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

Taken on: February 10, 2016

Tags:

Prayer book

Flemish

French

Book

Manuscript

Heraldry

Illumination

Miniature

Notable binding

Original binding

Ornament

Painting

Walters Art Museum

Flanders

France

17th century

15th century

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Sets appears in: • Walters Art Museum Ms. W.494

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