Mysterious boxes. Prints from the time of the lady and the unicorn.
Lienart| N° d'inventaire | 22274 |
| Format | 21 x 29 |
| Détails | 103 p., paperback with flaps. |
| Publication | Paris, 2019 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782359062922 |
The technique of engraving appeared in the West at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries and experienced an extraordinary flourishing during the following centuries. Its use then extended to many fields and the print was employed for everyday, commercial, devotional and artistic purposes. The work focuses on a very specific corpus of objects relating to the origins of French engraving, and particularly Parisian: print boxes. These wooden boxes covered with leather and metal bands date mostly from the period 1480-1550 and have the particularity of containing a woodcut glued inside, on the back of their lid. This image, whose subject is most often religious, is colored with a stencil and frequently accompanied by a few lines of engraved text. Although they have long been wrongly called "travel boxes" or "pilgrimage boxes," the use of these objects remains uncertain today, especially since both visual and textual sources are lacking. This book focuses on the question of the function of such objects by questioning the nature of the link between the box and the print and highlighting their devotional dimension. In order to place them in the context of artistic production in the 1500s, the boxes are also compared with other types of works, including printed books, handwritten books, ivories, stained glass windows, and tapestries. This confrontation highlights the personality of a major player in Parisian artistic life at the end of the Middle Ages, the Master of the Très Petites Heures d'Anne de Bretagne, identified with Jean d'Ypres. This painter-illuminator provided numerous models for the artists of his time, whether for engraving, stained glass, or tapestry. It is notably to him that we attribute the small patterns for the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry. In the field of illustrated printed books and prints, his influence was considerable, and engravings based on his inventions were still being published in the mid-16th century.
The technique of engraving appeared in the West at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries and experienced an extraordinary flourishing during the following centuries. Its use then extended to many fields and the print was employed for everyday, commercial, devotional and artistic purposes. The work focuses on a very specific corpus of objects relating to the origins of French engraving, and particularly Parisian: print boxes. These wooden boxes covered with leather and metal bands date mostly from the period 1480-1550 and have the particularity of containing a woodcut glued inside, on the back of their lid. This image, whose subject is most often religious, is colored with a stencil and frequently accompanied by a few lines of engraved text. Although they have long been wrongly called "travel boxes" or "pilgrimage boxes," the use of these objects remains uncertain today, especially since both visual and textual sources are lacking. This book focuses on the question of the function of such objects by questioning the nature of the link between the box and the print and highlighting their devotional dimension. In order to place them in the context of artistic production in the 1500s, the boxes are also compared with other types of works, including printed books, handwritten books, ivories, stained glass windows, and tapestries. This confrontation highlights the personality of a major player in Parisian artistic life at the end of the Middle Ages, the Master of the Très Petites Heures d'Anne de Bretagne, identified with Jean d'Ypres. This painter-illuminator provided numerous models for the artists of his time, whether for engraving, stained glass, or tapestry. It is notably to him that we attribute the small patterns for the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry. In the field of illustrated printed books and prints, his influence was considerable, and engravings based on his inventions were still being published in the mid-16th century.