A new exhibition showcasing illustrated prayer books from the Middle Ages is now on display at the Walters Art Museum.
The “Medieval Mindscapes” exhibition features 22 works curated from the Walters’ collection of rare books and manuscripts. It will remain on view on the third level of the museum’s Centre Street building through Aug. 23.
“Books of hours” were portable manuscripts containing daily prayers and images that “provided an opportunity for intimate interactions with art in service of the user’s Christian faith in medieval Europe,” according to a news release.
Some books were personalized with portraits of the owner or contained visual illusions in the margins.
“These books were crafted to really involve their owners in handling them and thinking about their imagery. It wasn’t passive looking; it was an active process,” said Lauren Maceross, the museum’s Zanvyl Krieger Curatorial Fellow for Rare Books and Manuscripts, in a statement. “This exhibition puts an emphasis on the way books of hours engaged users’ imaginations. As a universal human capability, this creative mental play is timeless, and provides a bridge that connects these books’ medieval readers to our audience today. What visitors learn in this exhibition may even inspire their own creativity!”
Among the works on view in the exhibition are three 15th-century books of hours originally from Belgium. One depicts its female owner as the Virgin Mary being told by an angel that she would give birth to the son of God. Another includes a lifelike image of a gold, coral, and pearl rosary wrapping around the text. The third depicts a smiling, fleshy skeleton, likely a personification of death.
The museum’s collection of rare books and manuscripts span more than 2,000 years from ancient to modern times. It includes nearly 1,000 illuminated manuscripts, more than 1,300 of the first printed books (circa 1455–1500), and nearly 2,000 rare tomes from after the year 1500.
Works originate from around the world, including deluxe Gospel books from Armenia, Ethiopia, Byzantium, and Ottonian Germany; French and Flemish books of hours; and masterpieces of Safavid, Mughal and Ottoman manuscript illumination.
First printed editions of ancient texts by great thinkers like Aristotle and Euclid, a diary written by Napoleon, and an intricate binding crafted by Tiffany, are among the printed book collection.
