Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux

[3] The miniatures use a variety of grisaille drawing in pen known (or at least so called in an inventory that included this work) as "de blanc et noir" and tempera for the other colours.The identification of the patrons, illuminator and the date assigned to the work all largely depend on identifying this book with the manuscript in New York, as does any clear conception of what Pucelle's personal style was."[13] There are a few other works that are claimed to be produced by the hand of Jean Pucelle, such as the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg, also located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art at The Cloisters, and the Belleville Breviary, that vary in style and quality.Deuchler states: "with the appearance of Pucelle’s name, there was an exciting new departure in Parisian courtly book illumination, which, as a matter of fact, would not have been possible without the contribution of Italy- to be more specific, without the aid of Duccio.The “Pucelle Style” shows solid trecento connections in its painterly skill and its familiarity with southern perspective as it existed in Sienese models.Paintings by Duccio, especially the Maestà in Siena Cathedral and the Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in Sant'Andrea, Pistoia can be directly related to elements of The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux.Because by the time of Pucelle's artistic bloom, Europeans were well aware and familiar with North and East African races and appearances, “the idea of depicting blacks as servants and specifically as tormenters of Christ had become part of the visual iconography of Western art from at least the 12th century.”[23] As the familiarity with black ethnicity heightened, so did the interest for realism, especially in the visual arts, which allowed for the depiction of characteristic features found in the specific African groups that have caught the attention of Western cultures at this point in time.Folio 82 verso depicts the Entombment scene, which is heavily influenced by the Italian compositional approach while integrating Northern Gothic figures.Judging from the foreground position, the fact that she is embracing Christ's arm, and her rippled hair exposed by the fallen hood of her cloak, all of which are “compositional and iconographic attributes in accordance with Mary Magdalene’s active role in the Lamentation found in the visual arts and devotional literature”[27] the figure crouching in the foreground of the Entombment miniature is Mary Magdalene, of which the inclusion, according to Gerard Cames, is a Western innovation of the 12th century.On the outer bas-de-page margins, the musical angels and the animals, such as rabbits, ape, and squirrel, portrayed in the foreground “have an immediate relevance [to] minutely rendered allusions to fertility, the Fall of man, and Redemption”.[28] The Betrayal page presents us with a mock-tilt composition and “two riders mounted on a goat and a ram (both beasts of multiple sinful connotation), [which] are engaged in a joint action of evil intent as they charge the keg set on a post between them”.[29] The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux today is not in its full original 14th-century state, yet remains in excellent condition, apart from some damages, especially to the opening calendar pages.