Brigitte Dekeyzer, Vorstelijke luxe en devotie. Het Breviarium Mayer van den Bergh (Gent/Brugge, ca. 1500) in artistiek, religieus en historisch perspectief, 2002 (Published in English as Layers of Illusion. The Mayer van den Bergh Breviary, Ludion, 2004). Supervisor: Bert Cardon.
The Mayer van den Bergh Breviary, which dates from around 1500 and is now preserved in the Mayer van den Bergh Museum in Antwerp, is one of a series of world-famous manuscripts that includes the La Flora Hours (Naples), the Hours of Isabella of Castile (Cleveland), the Breviary of Isabella of Castile (London) and the Grimani Breviary (Venice). With some 80 miniatures, 149 decorative borders, and innumerable ornamented initials and line fillers, it is a monument of Southern Netherlandish (Ghent-Bruges) book production. The manuscript was destined for export to Portugal.
The revised text of the dissertation was published by Ludion in the autumn of 2004 as Herfsttij van de Vlaamse Miniatuurkunst. Het Breviarium Mayer van den Bergh. The English version is published as Layers of Illusion. The Mayer van den Bergh Breviary.
The first, introductory section of the book situates the breviary in the context of Ghent-Bruges book production. Well known stylistic characteristics are reiterated, others reconsidered and varied. The second section deals with the relationship between word and image. A survey of the contents shows that the relationship between the texts and images in the breviary is minimal and, as is often the case in religious manuscripts, is largely limited to the rubrics above the prayers. Only the decoration of the psalter is specifically relevant to the text and is highly original. To classic word illustration are added a fascinating David cycle and a surprising series of Old Testament scenes. The third section focuses on the stylistic analysis of the miniatures. The literature is far from unanimous as regards the masters who worked on the breviary, some miniatures being attributed to two or even three different artists. On the basis of a rigorous stylistic study combined with codicological data, pigment analysis and infrared reflectography, the artists are presented and discussed. Section four is concerned with the iconography of the Mayer van den Bergh Breviary. Taking a number of type examples as a basis, the breviary’s illumination is reviewed. Where necessary, the inseparable link with panel painting is referred to. The final section explores the identity of the patron or intended owner. The starting point is the manuscript itself, which provides both textual and visual material from which to formulate a profile of the individual for whom the breviary was intended.
Only a part of the strictly technical section on the artists who worked on the Mayer van den Bergh Breviary was included in the book (in section three). An in-depth study of the Maximilian Master’s ‘workshop’ (responsible for approximately 90% of the breviary’s decoration) will appear in the Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts, published by Illuminare - Centre for the Study of the Illuminated Manuscript directed by Jan Van der Stock (forthcoming: 2006).
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