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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 53| October 2001


Facsimile of the Farnese Hours Acquired

The National Library has recently purchased a facsimile of the Farnese Hours, generally acknowledged as one of the last great examples of the art of illumination. Probably the best-known manuscript of the Italian High Renaissance, the Farnese Hours is Mannerist rather than Medieval, and something of an anachronism from the early era of the printed book.

The original manuscript was completed in Rome in 1546 for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520–1589), the most important art collector and private art patron of the mid-sixteenth century. Cardinal Farnese was the grandson of Pope Paul III and scion of one of the most powerful and wealthy dynasties in Italy (he was appointed a cardinal at the age of 14). The artist is Giulio Clovio (1498–1578), the most famous illuminator of the Italian Renaissance. Clovio was born in Croatia, and came to Italy at the age of 18. He appears to have entered the service of Cardinal Farnese in the late 1530s, and worked almost exclusively for him until his death some 40 years later. Vasari, in The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (first published in 1550 and revised and extended in 1568), calls Clovio a ‘new little Michelangelo,’ and describes this book, his masterpiece, as ‘something divine, not human.’ According to Vasari, Clovio’s ‘labour of love’ on the Farnese Hours took nine years to complete.

El Greco, Portrait of Giulio Clovio

El Greco, Portrait of Giulio Clovio with the Farnese Hours,
1570–72 Capodimonte Museum, Naples. The Renaissance art historian
Vasari records that in his old age Clovio took great delight in showing visitors
his little masterpiece, which was known as one of the ‘marvels of Rome.’
The Farnese Hours is depicted in its original vellum binding with
red fabric ties, not the silver covers added in the early seventeenth century

Like most books of hours, the Farnese Hours is relatively small in size, being intended for use as an intimate prayer book. In keeping with the medieval typological tradition, the 26 miniatures, set in elaborate borders, generally depict paired scenes from the Old and the New Testaments on facing pages. On folios 38v and 39r, for example, the Adoration of the Magi is paired with Solomon Adored by the Queen of Sheba. However, unlike medieval miniatures, the text and the illustrations are not fully integrated, with the images frequently being treated as separate framed paintings. Michelangelo and Raphael appear to have been Clovio’s main sources of inspiration (Clovio’s sensuous figures recall Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ignudi), with Clovio’s Mannerist style also being linked to Parmigianino.

The script is an italic, in a style known as cancelleresca formata, produced by the scribe Francesco Monterchi. All of the leaves in the facsimile are gilt edged and trimmed in accordance with the original. The Library’s copy is bound in red leather. A deluxe edition, which the Library has not acquired, reproduces the early seventeenth-century silver binding by Antonio Gentile (1519–1609).

The Farnese Hours was highly valued as soon as it was completed. Vasari regarded the manuscript as one of the sights of Rome, and records that Clovio, in his old age, took great delight in showing it off to visitors. Clovio is shown pointing to the open manuscript in the 1570–72 portrait of him by El Greco in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. The Farnese Hours was also one of only two individual works of art singled out for special attention in Cardinal Farnese’s will. He wanted it kept in the Farnese Palace in perpetuity. However after the extinction of the Farnese line in 1731, the Borbone dynasty in Naples took possession of it until 1903 when the Farnese Hours was purchased by the American banker and collector John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913).

The original manuscript of the Farnese Hours is now one of the treasures housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (MS M. 69). The full colour facsimile recently acquired by the Library has been produced by the specialist fine art facsimile publisher Akademische Druck—und Verlangstalt in Graz, Austria, with the support of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Art. The 114 leaves, containing 26 miniatures and 37 decorated text pages, are reproduced in the original format of 17.3 x 11 cm. A volume of commentary with text in German and English, containing an analysis of the miniatures by William M. Voelkle and a documentary essay on Clovio by Ivan Golub accompanies the facsimile. The Library’s Acquisitions Trust Fund made the purchase possible.
— Philip Jackson

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

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