The Hours of Catherine of Aragon can be considered one of the great achievements of Renaissance book production. The codex features 18 full-page compositions and 33 miniatures set into the text, all of exceptional vividness. Its 24 calendar leaves are fully illustrated with portraits of saints, zodiacal signs and a wide variety of pastimes in the bas-de-page. Every single page is lavishly decorated with floral and ornamental borders that are inhabited by grotesques and animals.
These paintings are consistent with the style of Jean Pichore, a renown Parisian illustrator who worked mainly for the French court and for Cardinal Georges d’Amboise and was also briefly active as a publisher of printed books. He ran a very productive workshop in which he employed members of his own family, for instance his daughters and various assistants. Pichore collaborated with independent Parisian artists, who had their own ateliers, like the Master of Philippa of Guelders, the Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse, Jean Coene IV and others.
The full-page compositions are very homogenous in style and show Pichore’s sublime manner at its best, with his elegant figures and the porcelain faces. Some of the smaller miniatures in the calendar and the suffrages of this superb manuscript show slight deviations from the master’s style, which may be because of the involvement of collaborators. The wonderful four-sided borders around each text page often show realistic plants with fruits and blossoms that recall the stunning work of Jean Bourdichon in his Grandes Heures for Queen Anne de Bretagne.
This Book of Hours for the use of Sarum bears witness to a pivotal moment both in Catherine of Aragon’s biography and in European history. It was commissioned before her marriage to Henry VIII of England, following the deaths of her first husband Arthur of Wales and of her mother Isabella of Castile. An incomparable miniature depicts the young royal couple, both dressed in gold, red and black, receiving the blessings of a guardian angel.
The brilliance of its artworks and its intimate connection to Catherine of Aragon’s life make this book of hours an object without equal.
