This book presents the exceptional group of illuminations in the Robert
Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The miniatures and
cuttings from medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in this collection
represent the major schools of illumination that flourished in Europe
from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Robert Lehman (1892-1969),
one of the great private art collectors of the twentieth century,
collected these illuminations as an extension of his remarkable
collection of early European paintings and drawings.
Among the works catalogued here are a miniature by Simon Marmion--the
"prince d'enluminure"--painted for a Breviary for Charles the Bold and
Margaret of York, and, among the Italian illuminations, a Last Judgment
in an Initial C by the great Florentine painter Lorenzo Monaco and an
Adoration of the Magi by Francesco Marmitta. A Self-Portrait by
Simon Bening and a Virgin and Child by Francesco Morone are early
examples of small paintings on parchment conceived as independent works
of art rather than as illustrations for manuscripts. Also here are a
leaf painted for the Hours of ftienne Chevalier by Jean Fouquet, the
most celebrated French painter of the fifteenth century, and a miniature
Holy Face by Gerard David that was possibly created as an independent
devotional image. All the illuminations in the Robert Lehman Collection
are reproduced in color, and copious comparative illustrations
supplement the extensive catalogue entries. This is the seventh in a
projected series of sixteen volumes that will catalogue the entire
Robert Lehman Collection.
