For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sarah Boehme, Director
409.886.ARTS (2787)
Stark Museum of Art to Display Illuminated Manuscripts
ORANGE, Texas, November 7, 2007 - Seven beautifully hand-painted manuscripts of the late medieval period will be on view at the Stark Museum of Art November 27, 2007 - January 5, 2008. Angels in Art: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Stark Collection is a special focus exhibition featuring Books of Hours.
The Books of Hours manuscripts are prayer books that were used by non-clergy for daily devotions in the middle ages. Artists decorated the pages of the handwritten books with lavish illustrations to guide the reader. The Stark collection contains beautiful manuscripts from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, by French, Flemish and Dutch artists.
The exhibition will have two parts. One section will feature illustrations related to the Christmas holiday season - the Annunciation; Annunciation to the Shepherds: The Virgin and Child Enthroned, Flanked by Angels Playing Music; the Glorification of the Virgin; and the Evangelist Matthew.
The other exhibition section will feature illustrations of the Last Judgment and King David, related to psalms in the Books of Hours.
This is the second year the Stark Museum of Art has exhibited its Books of Hours during the Christmas holiday period. Each book is open this year to an illustration that includes representations of angels, a theme that relates the Stark Museum of Art's exhibition to the City of Orange's holiday theme of angels.
"Due to the high level of interest, we hope to make the exhibition of the illuminated manuscripts an annual event," said Sarah Boehme, Director.
Tying into the museum's special exhibition will be a lecture by Roger Wieck, curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, New York. Wieck will discuss Books of Hours in Orange on December 18. More information about Wieck's lecture will be available in the weeks leading up to the event.
In association with the exhibition and special events, the Museum Store will feature new items reproducing the exhibition's signature image, a special Christmas ornament and holiday cards.
Located at 712 Green Avenue in Orange, Texas, the Stark Museum of Art is open to the public at no charge Tuesday through Saturday. Hours are from 10 am--5 pm. Group tours are available by appointment. For more information call 409.886.ARTS (2787).
Artists who illustrated Books of Hours painted scenes to inspire meditation. In this miniature an anonymous artist depicted the Archangel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mary that she will bear the Son of God. The artist used rich colors of predominantly red and blue, highlighted with gold.
###
