Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany
The Hours of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France is a work of book artist Jean Bourdichon and is one of the most magnificent books of hours that were ever created. When Anna died in 1514 she left behind a reputation of piety, art patronage and love of luxury. In their Grandes Heures there is this characterization confirmed.
Description
Miniatures
The flight to Egypt for vespers reveals the sweetness of the style of Bourdichon. The lovely facial features of the Holy Family, and the precocious expression of the child, holding an apple in hand, stand in contrast to the difficult situation. Surrounded by blue, Leonardo da Vinci reminiscent rocks, the miracle is represented by the sower, as in the Book of Hours her mother. Anna is portrayed in the manuscript in prayer, she wears a gold robe with fur-trimmed sleeves and the Breton cap. She is shown here prettier than in others, Bourdichon presented a formal portrait of the Queen, in front of her Book of Hours with ornate edges and open closing, with due flattery. The Queen is represented by its patron saint, the elderly hl. Anna, St.. Ursula with an arrow and the coat of arms of Brittany, as well as the St.. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine.
The Angel's Annunciation to the Shepherds of the Nativity is one of the greatest sides of Bourdichon, which identifies him as champion. In this night scene of the contrast of the red-hot fire in the foreground and the blue landscape in the background increases the dramatic effect. While their comrades slept, three shepherds who watched the fire. In the distance there is a second fire, an imaginative element, sitting there with a shepherd. Only the angels in the light-filled gap between the clouds is a stereotypical figure; but his pointing at the sleeping Bethlehem finger where the Christ child lies, it connects directly to the underlying dense scene.
A special feature of the Grandes Heures is the botanical accuracy with which the flowers shown in the border and are provided with both Latin names as well as with the popular French names.
Dated at Blois on 14 March 1507/ 08 on behalf of the Queen of France, their treasurer is instructed their estimated " Bourdichon " the sum of 1,050 livres tournois for the " rich and lush illuminating to pay their big book of hours ... "
Anne de Bretagne
Anne de Bretagne was the heiress of Francis II, the last independent Duke of Brittany, and daughter of his second wife Margaret de Foix. After the death of her father in September 1488, she was not yet twelve years old and an orphan. With the exception of her younger sister Isabeau ( the 1490 died ), she had no close relatives. As Duchess of Brittany she was the greatest heiress in France. Whoever she married, would get the last major, independent of the French crown fief. The preferred candidate of her father was Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Of the thirty -year-old heir to the empire's 1482 widower since the death of his wife Mary of Burgundy in the year. The Treaty of Vergers forbade her to marry without the consent of the French king. The answer of Charles VIII was the invasion of the duchy, but it was distinguished from a solution: the marriage between Anna and Karl, just as the Breton rights and customs were fully respected.
It was covered by a contract that after the king's death, and in the case of her remarriage, it must be the successor to the French throne or his legacy. On 8 January 1499, and at twenty-two, she married Louis XII. and was the second time Queen of France. From the series of their pregnancies during her second marriage two daughters survived. Gradually it became clear that the order of the policy, which Charles VIII forced upon her, even if her older daughter Claude ( * 1499 ) would come into action. Anna died on January 9, 1514, a few weeks after that Claude was married to her cousin Francis of Orléans - Angoulême, the king of France in 1515 after the death of her father on January 1.
Anna's heart was, according to their instructions sent to rest in Brittany.