Detail View: The AMICA Library: Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain
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AMICA ID:
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CMA_.1963.256
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AMICA Library Year:
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2001
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Object Type:
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Books
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Creator Name:
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Bening, Alexander
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Creator Nationality:
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Flemish
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Creator Role:
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artist
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Creator Dates/Places:
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c. 1444 - 1519
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Biography:
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Alexander Bening has been presumed to be the same artist formerly know under the sobriquet, 'Master of the Older Prayerbook of Maximilian I'
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Gender:
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M
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Creator Name-CRT:
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Alexander Bening
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Title:
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Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain
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Title Type:
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Primary
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View:
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Full View
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Creation Date:
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c. 1495-1500
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Creation Start Date:
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1495
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Creation End Date:
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1500
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Materials and Techniques:
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ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
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Classification Term:
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Manuscript
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Dimensions:
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Codex: 22.5cm x 15.2cm
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AMICA Contributor:
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The Cleveland Museum of Art
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Owner Location:
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Cleveland, Ohio, USA
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ID Number:
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1963.256
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Credit Line:
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Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
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Rights:
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Context:
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This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies.This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
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Related Image Identifier Link:
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CMA_.1963.256.tif
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