The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux (ca. 1324–28) – Worthy of the Queen of France

Nikola Benin

Artist: Jean Pucelle (French, active Paris, 1319–34) Date: ca. 1324–28 Geography: Made in Paris Culture: French Medium: Grisaille, tempera, and ink on vellum The MET (Cloisters) collection “At first glance, this tiny prayer book, with not a trace of gold, might seem an unlikely possession for a queen of France. But it is a work of exceptional artistry: the figures are rendered in delicate grisaille (shades of gray), giving them an amazingly sculptural quality, and are accented with rich color and touches of lilac and turquoise. …. The testament of Jeanne d’Evreux identifies this prayer book, left to King Charles V, as the one ‘that Pucelle illuminated.’ At Charles’s death, the book entered the collection of another famous bibliophile, his brother Jean, duc de Berry, patron of The Cloisters’ Belles Heures.”