Spinola Hours

Spinola Hours
The Holy Trinity Enthroned, fol. 10v.
ArtistMaster of James IV of Scotland
Master of the Old Prayerbook of Maximilian I
Master of the Lübeck Bible
Master of the Dresden Prayerbook
Master of the c. 1500 Prayerbook
Yearc.1510–1520
MediumTempera colors, gold, and ink on parchment
Dimensions23.5 cm × 16.51 cm (9.3 in × 6.50 in)
LocationJ. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

The Spinola Hours is a illuminated manuscript book of hours of about 1510-1520, consisting of 312 folios, over 80 of which are mainly decorated with miniature paintings. It was produced between Bruges and Ghent in Flanders around 1510-1520, and is a key work of the Ghent–Bruges school of illuminators. According to Thomas Kren, a former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the miniatures within the Spinola Hours can be attributed to five distinct sources. Forty-seven of these illuminated pages can be attributed to the 'Master of James IV'. Since 1883 it has been in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, catalogued as Ms. Ludwig IX 18 (83.ML.114).[1]

According to Thomas Kren and his colleagues, five distinct artists worked on the Spinola Hours, which Kren describes as "the most pictorially ambitious and original sixteenth-century Flemish manuscript".[2] The last portion and perhaps the management of the project was by the Master of James IV of Scotland (of Ghent), usually thought to be the same person as the documented Gerard Hourenbout, whose notname comes from his participation in the Hours of James IV of Scotland, now in Vienna. He alone is credited for forty-seven of the illuminated pages. The other four artists are likely to have worked to his overall plan, in their own workshops. One or more artists from the workshop of the 'Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximilian' painted twenty-four miniatures, eight were credited to the 'Master of the Lübeck Bible', three to the 'Master of the Dresden Prayerbook', and two to the 'Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500', these two last of Bruges. No signs of collaboration on individual illuminations were identified in this manuscript.[3]

  1. ^ Getty
  2. ^ Kren & McKendrick, 414
  3. ^ De Hamel, Christopher (2016). Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts. UK: Penguin Books. pp. 545–550. ISBN 9780241003046.