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The Hastings hours. A 15th-century flemish book of hours made for William, Lord Hastings, now in the British Library, London
Preface and commentary by D.H.Turner. Thames and Hudson
1983,
cm.12,5x18,
pp.159, con 79 pagine riprodotte a colori.
legatura editoriale in tutta tela, cofanetto.
reproduced from additional M.S. 54782 in the Department of Manuscripts, the reference Division, The British Library.
From the D. H. Turner’s preface:
“The Ghent-Bruges school is the culmination of Flemish book-painting. The Hastings Hours is datable before 1483 – as William, Lord Hastings was beheaded at the instigation of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the future King Richard III, on Friday 13 February of that year – and is therefore the first of the school’s surviving masterpieces. We know the names of some of the leading Ghent-Bruges miniaturists, such as Gerard Horenbout and Simon Bening; but the artist of The Hastings Hours is anonymous. There are, however, reasons of style and iconography for identifying him as Simon’s father Alexander, the brother - (or nephew) in-law - of Hugo van der Goes.
The Hastings Hours has been little studied or reproduced, but knowledge of it is vital for appreciation of the Ghent-Bruges school of Flemish manuscript illumination, and beyond that of early Netherlandish painting in general. As a historical document The Hastings Hours is fascinating because of its association with the England of the Wars of the Roses, of Edward IV, Richard III and the princes in the Tower. Edward and Richard were Renaissance figures; Henry VI, whom they deposed, had been a mediaeval one. Lord Hastings himself was perhaps more a man of the middle ages than of the Renaissance, and it is a world in transition that looks out at us from the pages of The Hastings Hours, a world that was striving to reconcile tradition and invention, decorative art and art for art’s sake.”