One of the most important Italian manuscripts in the Getty Museum, the lavishly illustrated Gualenghi d'Este Hours was created around 1649 on the occasion of the marriage of diplomat Andrea Gualengo to Orsina d'Este, a member of Ferrara's ruling family. The devotional manuscript featured brilliant figured decoration of the suffrages--short prayers to saints--and was created by Taddeo Crivelli, one of the most important manuscript illuminators of the Renaissance.
This volume includes reproductions of all the illuminations in the original manuscript plus selected text pages, each with commentary. Kurt Barstow examines the book's vivid devotional imagery in relation to works of art of the period that help explain the Hours significance for the fifteenth-century patrons. This beautifully illustrated book is published to coincide with an exhibit featuring the manuscript that will take place at the Getty Museum from May 9 to July 30, 2000.