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The ''Book of Hours of Simon de Varie'' (or the ''Varie Hours'') is a French Illuminated manuscript commissioned by the court official Simon de Varie, with miniatures attributed to at least four artists; hand A who may have been a workshop member of the Bedford Master, the anonymous illustrators known as the Master of Jean Rolin (hand B),〔Marrow (2007), 26〕 the Dunois Master (hand C) and the French miniaturist Jean Fouquet. It was completed in 1455 and consists of 49 large miniatures and dozens of decorative vignettes and painted initials, which total over 80 decorations.〔Marrow (1994), 3〕 Fouquet is known to have contributed six full leaf illuminations, including a masterwork Donor and Virgin diptych. A number of saints appear - Saint Simon (de Varie's patron saint) is placed as usual alongside Saint Jude (folio 41); other pages feature saints Bernard of Menthon, James the Greater and Guillaume de Bourges.〔Marrow (1994), 126〕 The book was divided into 3 volumes〔Marrow (1994), 1〕 by its 17th century over Philippe de Béthune. Two are currently housed at National Library of the Netherlands, in The Hague and were acquired in 1816 and 1890.〔"(Book of Hours of Simon de Varie )". Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Retrieved 11 October, 2014〕 The third was long thought to be lost, but resurfaced in 1983 when it was rediscovered by art historian and medievalist James Marrow in the possession of an antiquarian bookseller in San Francisco. That volume contains 97 leaves, and is today in the Getty Center in Los Angeles.〔Marrow (1994), 5〕〔 The book is unusually ornate and beautiful,〔Knight, Christopher. "(Illuminating Fouquet's Prayer Book: The Getty Museum has 'reunited' masterpieces of 15th-Century French artist Jean Fouquet for the first time in centuries )". LA Times, 15 May, 1994. Retrieved 11 October, 2014〕 and measures 11.7 cm x 8.5 cm. The two Hague volumes have identical armorial bindings added by their 17th century owner Philippe de Béthune (1561-1649).〔Marrow (1994), 4〕 Its first major art historical treatment was published in 1902 by Paul Durrieu. ==The patron== Simon de Varie was born in Bourges as the son of a textile merchant. Although from a wealthy family, after a promising start, he had only a modest career as a crown officer under Charles VII and Louis XI of France. There is little record of his life. He lived and worked in Paris, and numerous elements of the illuminations can be associated with France. His identity as patron was not made until the third volume surfaced in San Francisco. Art historian François Avril established that the motto ''Vie a mon desir'', which appears on a filo of a kneeling man dressed in armour and red garments replete with heraldic images, was an anagram of "Simon de Varie".〔 He was not in the military, but is nonetheless shown wearing armour, perhaps aspirationally.〔Kren (1997), 81〕 His portrait is half of a diptych; the Virgin appears in a separate, opposite miniature, which is linked by floor tiles sharing a single vanishing point to those on de Varie's page.〔"(Simon de Varie Kneeling in Prayer )". Getty Center. Retrieved 11 October, 2014〕 Behind him is a female heraldic figure wearing a long, veiled hennin. She holds a ''escutcheon'' (shield), crowned with a helmet and chest.〔 de Varie probably commissioned the book to celebrate his appointment as crown officer, a position he hoped would mark the beginning of his elevation on the social ladder.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Book of Hours of Simon de Varie」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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