The Hours of Isabella Stuart

The Rohan Master

Artists

The Rohan Master, who was probably trained by the Giac Master, may have worked as both a panel painter and an illuminator.

He is named after a Book of Hours that belonged to the Rohan family of Brittany (Paris, BnF, MS lat. 9471). Active c. 1420-1440, he was one of the last and most individualistic proponents of the International Gothic style in 15th-century France. He contributed six large miniatures to the Hours of Isabella Stuart. They show his tall, sinuous figures with expressive faces and elongated limbs. They also reveal his idiosyncratic drawing style, with strings of loops indicating drapery folds.

Lightbox: 260
1
Detail of St John’s face under magnification (20x), taken in raking light. The lighting conditions help appreciate the texture of the painted surface and the thick impasto used for the white highlights on the saint’s forehead and cheek.
Lightbox: 261
2
Detail of St John’s hair under magnification (16x), with underdrawing in brown ink showing through small losses in the paint layers.
Lightbox: 262
3
Detail of St John’s blue mantle under magnification (7.5x). Underdrawing in a dark brown wash is clearly visible through a small loss in the surface layer. It also partially shows through the blue paint, contributing to the modelling of the drapery.

St John (Gospel Sequence of St John)

Accompanied by his symbol, the eagle, St John is writing his Gospel, while the devil creeps beneath and spills his ink. The marginal image, the first in the cycle illustrating the Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ, shows the poet receiving a vision of God. The arms of Isabella Stuart have been added to the border.

Related content: The Hours of Isabella Stuart

Related content: Lab