A Masterpiece Reconstructed: The Hours of Louis XII

Thomas Kren, Mark Evans, Janet Backhouse, and Nancy TurnerEdited by Thomas Kren with Mark Evans The Hours of Louis XII is the stunning prayer book that Jean Bourdichon (1457/58–1521) painted for the king of France, most likely on the occasion of his coronation in 1498. Bourdichon was the court painter to four successive French kings, including Louis and his predecessor, Charles VIII. The manuscript was originally illuminated with twelve large calendar miniatures and two dozen full-page miniatures, but by the seventeenth century the Hours of Louis XII had been dismembered. In recent years sixteen of these images have been located, including the portrait of the king that served as the book's frontispiece. This catalogue, which accompanied an exhibition at the Getty Museum held from October 18, 2005, to January 8, 2006, publishes the rediscovered leaves together for the first time, along with four enlightening essays. Janet Backhouse discusses the book and its cycle of miniatures. Thomas