MMFA 2018: Book of Hours

RESPLENDENT ILLUMINATIONS

BOOK OF HOURS FROM THE 13th TO THE 16th CENTURY IN QUEBEC COLLECTIONS

September 4, 2018 – January 6, 2019

  

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) for the first time presents Books of Hours, conserved in seven Quebec collections. This exhibition is a result of an extensive research. It represents a unique opportunity to admire works primarily from illuminated manuscripts – the priceless legacy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe.

Books of Hours were works of private devotion that first appeared in the 13th century. They were the most popular prayer books made for the laity and were used as primers for learning to read. Often given as wedding gifts, they were “bestsellers” until the 16th century. Over time, they evolved in a variety of ways both textually and iconographically, adapting to the regional differences in devotions, languages and artistic styles of European Christianity.

The 59 artefacts presented for the first time belong to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, McGill University, the arts library of the Université du Québec à Montréal, the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice, the Archives of the Jesuits in Canada, to Concordia University and the Musée de l’Amérique francophone in Quebec City.

The works on display show the exquisite elegance of some Gothic and Renaissance illuminations from France, the Southern Netherlands, Italy and Southern Germany, as well as other contemporaneous expressions of popular piety. These small images, featuring decorations similar to decorative folk art carved into wood or painted, were probably produced for clients of more modest means. Seven books come from the early days of printing. The books illustrate the development of woodcuts and metal cuts that gradually replaced the art of illumination.

 Women were more than just pious readers of Books of Hours. As the works in the exhibition demonstrate, thye contributed their expertise at various stages of production.

In comparison with other collections of early books in North America, what is special about the Books of Hours held in Quebec is the fact that they were first and foremost devotional works of New France. This is evidenced in the Jesuit Relations as of 1653 and in requests made by the Hospitalières (nursing sisters in Quebec) between 1664 and 1668 to their benefactors in France. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these devotional books found a new vocation, becoming collectible artefacts. Whether complete or fragmentary, Books of Hours came into Quebec by way of inheritances or purchases in Europe. 

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This exhibition is located the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Graphic Arts Centre: Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion, Level S2

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.