Illuminating the Medieval Hunt
Le Livre de la Chasse Miniatures on View at Morgan Library: A Review
Hunting scenes from the 14th-century "Le livre de la chasse" are highlighted in "Illuminating the Medieval Hunt" at New York's Morgan Library & Museum.
Illuminating the Medieval Hunt (April 18-August 10, 2008) at New York's Morgan Library & Museum exhibits manuscripts, painted miniatures and printed works from the 11th to the 16th Century. Together their images illustrate how the theme of hunting was variously interpreted by artists and writers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Le livre de la chasse: Commission and Survival
The subject of numerous treatises during the medieval period, hunting was a royal and aristocratic sport. Wealthy patrons employed writers to describe its various aspects and artists to lavishly decorate their works. One such elaborately illustrated text is Le livre de la chasse (1387-1389), composed by the nobleman Gaston Phoebus (1331-1391) and presumably commissioned by John the Fearless (r. 1404-1419) for his father, Philip the Bold, the Valois Duke of Burgundy (r. 1363-1404).
Forty-six copies of the detailed manuscript survive.The two best preserved examples are owned by the Morgan Library, previously in the collection of King Ferdinand II of Aragón (r. 1479-1516) and Queen Isabella of Castile (r. 1474-1504), and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Both French books, illustrated by an unknown illuminator, were produced simultaneously in 1407 and contain the same 87 miniatures.
The Volume's Organization and Contents
Le livre de la chasse is divided into four books:
- gentle and wild beasts;
- the nature and care of dogs;
- hunting in general and with canines; and
- the use of traps, snares and crossbow.
The Morgan Library's exhibition displays the text's cycle of miniatures in their proper sequence. Phoebus regarded the dog as the "noblest and most reasonable beast that God ever created." And according to Jean Froissart (ca. 1337-1405), chronicler of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), Phoebus maintained kennels for some 1600 hounds. As such, many of the show's extraordinary illuminations deal with dogs, their care and habits. Others describe hunting devices, strategies and costumes. All come from the Morgan Library's manuscript, disbound for conservation purposes and the production of a facsimile, a common museum practice.
Other Editions and Hunting Illustrations
The hunt was also used metaphorically in secular and religious texts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. One such example on display is the illuminated miniature Hunt of the Unicorn Annunciation from a Netherlandish Book of Hours (ca. 1500) in Latin and Dutch. As the mythological unicorn could only be tamed by a maiden, the archangel Gabriel is depicted using two sleek leashed hounds to chase the white horned beast, a symbol of chastity and purity, into the welcoming lap of the Virgin Mary.
The dawn of printing during the 15th Century allowed copies of Le livre de la chasse to be produced inexpensively for the emerging middle class. Included in Illuminating the Medieval Hunt are two rare first and second printed editions of the manual from Paris (ca. 1507). They're accompanied by several Islamic and Indian paintings, demonstrating that hunting scenes were not confined to the art of Western Europe.
Source:
- William R. Tyler. Dijon and the Valois Dukes of Burgundy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.
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