03 — ARTWORK
Psalter of the Duc de Berry
- MEDIUM
- Manuscript (Ms. français 13091)
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 676 × 1008 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
PsalterA manuscript (particularly one for liturgical use) or a printed book containing the text of the Psalms. The great popularity and copious illustration of the psalter make it the most important illuminated book from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Thereafter the Book of Hours became the most important channel for illuminations. of the Duc de Berry c. 1386 Manuscriptcollective term for books or other documents written by hand; in a specific sense, the hand-written medieval book, the Codex manuscriptus, often ornamented with decorative borders, illuminated initials and miniatures, and containing works of ancient philosophy or scholarly, ecclesiastical, and literary texts. Manuscripts were usually produced on commission. At first the scriptoria (writing rooms) of monasteries transcribed the contents of famous manuscripts and made copies. Monastic communities in the Netherlands and northern Germany began producing manuscripts around 1383/84. Flanders, Burgundy, and in particular Paris became major centres for the mass production of breviaries (prayer books) and Books of Hours. (Ms. français 13091) Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
The miniatureTerm originally applied to the art of manuscript illumination but later used of paintings, usually portraits, executed on a very small scale. The earliest miniaturists (16th century) continued to use the materials of the illuminators, painting in gouache on vellum or card. representing King David is from the Psalter of the Duc de Berry.
A particularly interesting fact about the Duc de Berry's Psalter is that the twenty-four miniatures representing apostles, evangelists and prophets were painted by one of the well-known sculptors of the period, the Fleming André Beauneveu. Beauneveu had previously been in the service of Charles V and executed the royal tombs being erected in the Abbey of Saint Denis. Contemporary sources also refer to his work as a sculptor in Flanders. From 1386 onwards he worked for the Duc de Berry and painted the miniatures of the Psalter in the years before his death. In the inventory of the Duke's manuscripts, made in 1402, Beauneveu's name appears as the painter of these miniatures. The figures, monumental in appearance despite their small size, are all painted in grisailleA painting done entirely in one colour, usually gray. Grisaille paintings were often intended to imitate sculpture. against coloured backgrounds, and are markedly plastic in character. The illustration represents King David in three-quarters profile, seated on a great throne in the GothicGothic, which may well have originated with Alberti as a derogatory term and which certainly corresponds to Vasari's 'maniera tedesca' ('German style'), is properly the descriptive term for an artistic style which achieved its first full flowering in the Ile de France and the surrounding areas in the period between c. 1200 and c. 1270, and which then spread throughout northern Europe. It is characterized by the hitherto unprecedented integration of the arts of sculpture, painting, stained glass and architecture which is epitomized in the great cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens, and Reims or in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. In all the arts the predominantly planar forms of the Romanesque are replaced by an emphasis on line. There is a transcendental quality, whether in the soaring forms of the pointed arches or in the new stress on the humanity of Christ, which similarly distinguishes it from the preceding Romanesque style. In thinking of Nicola (d. c. 1284) or Giovanni Pisano (d. after 1314) there is same danger of forgetting what had happened in French sculpture half a century or more earlier, and likewise it is hard to remember that the spectacular achievements of early Renaissance art are a singularly localized eddy in the continuing stream of late gothic European art. By northern European standards few Italian works of art can be called gothic without qualification, and the story of 13th and 14th century Italian architecture is as much one of resistance to the new style as of its reception, whether directly from France or through German or central European intermediaries. In sculpture and in painting, the Italian reluctance to distort the human figure, conditioned by a never wholly submerged awareness of the omnipresent antique heritage, gives a special quality to the work of even those artists such as Giovanni Pisano or Simone Martini who most closely approached a pure gothic style. Nevertheless, the vitalizing role of Northern gothic art throughout the early Renaissance and the period leading up to it should never be underestimated. The artistic, like the cultural and commercial, interaction was continuous and much of the Italian achievement is incomprehensible if seen in isolation. It is not merely at the level of direct exchanges between one artist and another, or the influence of one building; painting, manuscript or piece of sculpture upon another, that the effects are to be felt. The streaming quality of line which is so characteristic of Brunelleschi's early Renaissance architecture surely reflects a sensitivity to the gothic contribution which is entirely independent of, and lies much deeper than, the superficial particularities of form. The counterflow of influence and inspiration from South to North must likewise not be underrated. In particular, the contribution of Italian painters from Duccio and Simone Martini onwards is central to the evolution of the so-called International Gothic style developing in Burgundy, Bohemia and north Italy in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. architectural style. The throne fills most of the space and sets off to perfection the poetic figure of the aged king playing on the lute.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-re291f7c7977799,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Psalter of the Duc de Berry by BEAUNEVEU, André},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/beauneveu-andr-rf9868e21329373/psalter-of-the-duc-de-berry-re291f7c7977799},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
OTHER WORKS BY ANDRÉ BEAUNEVEU
The archive catalogues no further works by this artist.
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