Bound for history

Valentines day. Not a day I celebrate, just not into the ‘Hallmark-stuff’ it represents (but do love my husband very much). But still, a day to celebrate love is a good thing. So, to celebrate my love for books, a heart-shaped books blog. Medieval books, ofcourse.

Since in the middle ages every book was made by hand, all are different and there is room to differentiate per book. So books that are not a square but an other shape are, although seldom, seen from time to time. The heart was also an inspiration for the shape of books, as five surviving books and three paintings proof. For this blog I’ll take you on a treasure hunt along the three paintings.

Heart-shaped books in paintings

As far as I know there are three paintings with heart-shaped books. Two of them are rather familiar, you find them all over the internet. The two paintings are almost similar, both painted around 1480 by the same painter, know as the ‘Master of the View of St Gudula’.¹ Both are probably the right wing of a devotional diptych.

Although the young man, the posture, clothes and the book are similar, the backgrounds differ. Left shows the church of Notre Dame du Sablon in Brussels, the right painting shows the church of Sainte Gudule in Brussels. Brussels is the town where the Dutch artist probably worked.

The two books are remarkably similar. Shape (ofcourse), the gold edges, red binding, no visible closure, even the lay-out of the pages look the same. But also the hands holding the book, the index finger between the pages. Makes you wonder who this young chap was…

Ladies too

Unknown to me was the painting with a lady holding a heart-shaped book. Visiting the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2018, I suddenly stood eye-to-eye with this gorgeous painting of Saint Jerome and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, made around 1480-90 by an unknown painter who was highly influenced by Rogier van der Weyden, also painting in Brussels.

May I copy your painting?

All three paintings were made in the 1480-90, all three in Brussels. Two by the ‘Master of the View of St Gudula’ and one by an unknown artist. Experts already mention that ‘Catherine’s hands and heart-shaped book recall two portraits by the Master of the View of Saint Gudule’. So they have compared and already decided that the three paintings weren’t painted by the same person. Stil the similarity is striking. Let’s place them together:

Catherine is holding the book exactly the same as the young men do. Look at the position of the left hand and the index finger between the pages. The thump and index finger of the right hand finding each other on top of the page, the other fingers around the edges. The red binding. And, if you look closely, the initials in red (most common) and green (far les common than blue). One painter is obviously copying the other. Not a problem, it was common sence to copy a good example. Copyright wasn’t a thing back then. But the painters definitely knew eachother en their works.

Prayers or love songs?

The descriptions of the paintings differ on one aspect: what are these young people reading? The Met museum says: ‘The heart-shaped book this sitter holds is probably a prayer book‘.
The National gallery says: ‘The young man may be at his devotions‘ suggesting it is a devotional book.
But the Rijksmuseum says: ‘The costly heartshaped book she holds probably contains profane love songs‘.

So… prayers to God or lovesongs for your sweetheart? Above the two books in the paintings who were available in high res. It is not possible to read the text, but it gives a very good view of the text itself, the page lay-out, the rubric in red, small initials in red and green. For me these are not lovesongs, but probably devotional texts. What do you think? Please feel free to let me know in the comments.

And just to tickle your mind, here áre two a heart-shaped books with songs… indeed a complete different lay-out… but that is for another blog.

footnotes

1. named after a painting with a view of the church of St Gudula in Brussels. If this painting is one of the 2 paintings mentioned here, or another one is knowledge not available to me right now.