Sforza Hours

Milan and Ghent — Around 1486/90 and around 1520

An exquisitely illuminated Renaissance masterpiece with a story worthy of a crime novel: begun by Giovan Pietro Birago, then stolen, completed by Gerard Horenbout, and now divided into four volumes due to its more than 200 beautiful miniatures.

Hardly any other medieval manuscript is comparable to the breathtakingly illuminated Sforza Hours. The precious work was begun in about 1486 as a commission for Duchess Bona of Savoy, wife of Galleazo Maria Sforza, by the talented book artist Giovan Pietro Birago, who worked at the Sforza court in Milan. After a never solved robbery of about one third of the unfinished leaves, work on the magnificent manuscript was stopped around 1495 and not completed until 1521 by Gerard Horenbout, the Dutch court painter of Margaret of Austria. Long aberrations brought the magnificent manuscript to some of the most important ruling houses of the Renaissance. Its incomparably valuable and precious illumination, which gathers in the smallest space countless splendid borders and 203 full-page miniatures, which are in no way inferior to the great panel painting, still casts a spell on the awestruck beholder.

Books of hours were the most popular prayer and devotional books intended for the laity in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. The books of hours from the Renaissance Period are outstanding examples of the high art of hand-made book illumination and count among the most beautiful manuscripts that were ever made. The Sforza Hours is a fantastic masterpiece of splendid miniature painting in spectacular colors and rich pictorial adornment. This manuscript is a work whose charming, opulent design is befitting of the paramount position of the Sforza family. The Sforza have been characterized alongside the Medici as the most significant commissioners and patrons of the artistic life of the Renaissance. The splendid book of hours consists of 696 breathtakingly illustrated vellum pages. Alongside 203 full-page miniatures, fantastic bordures in an unending variety of colors and lavish gold adornment adorn the work in excess.

Art at the Court of the Sforza

The book of hours was commissioned by Duchess Bona of Savoy, the wife of Galeazzo Sforza. She was a daughter of Duke Louis the Elder and was married in July of 1468. The dazzling Renaissance prince Galeazzo Maria Sforza was not only known for his lecherous, cruel, and tyrannical character, but he also has gone down in history as a patron of art and music. Some of the most talented artists from across Europe worked at the Sforza court, among them the Milanese Giovan Pietro Birago, the leading miniaturist during the reign of Lodovico Sforza. Birago was entrusted with the commission for the Bona’s book of hours. With this work, he created his masterpiece and simultaneously a principle work of European Renaissance art. Birago was inspired by the painting of Leonardo da Vinci for the depiction of people, Andrea Mantegna was his example for the composition of landscapes. The incomprehensibly precious book illustrations of the Sforza Hours surpassed everything that had previously been known in the world of book art. The codex, which is kept safe today in the British Library in London, can look back on an exciting history.

A Spectacular Journey Through History

There exists a letter from the painter Birago concerning the book of hours, which was addressed to an unknown nobleman shortly before the completion of his masterpiece. Therein he told of a mendicant friar, who stole parts of the still-incomplete codex from him. Some of the stolen pages, which made up approximately one third of the entire manuscript, never resurfaced. After this mysterious art theft and long aberrations, the book of hours finally came into the hands of Margaret of Austria. In 1506, she went with her young nephew, the future Emperor Charles V, to the Netherlands as governor and evolved into one of the greatest patrons of northern Renaissance art. She gave her court painter, the world-famous Gerard Horenbout, the commission for the completion of the unfinished book of hours. In 1520, he supplemented the incomplete vellum pages and appended the work with impressive miniatures. The manuscript could have possibly reached Spain with Charles V, in whose preferred kingdom of Castile it was found 350 years later. The collector John Malcolm of Potlach obtained the book of hours and gifted it to the British library in 1893, where it counts among the most valuable holdings to this day.

Unique in Art History

Giovan Pietro Birago wrote in the already mentioned letter, that the Sforza Hours, even before it was completed, already possessed a value of 500 Ducats. Thus, it exceeded the worth of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Virgin of the Rocks by fivefold. This makes it apparent just how astoundingly and richly the furnishing of the fantastic work was designed. The book of hours possesses, from an art historical perspective, a most unique status, that it is a principle work of two illuminators, who worked in different countries and never met one another. The Italian section shows accompanying pictures that can hardly be surpassed in their dramatic and strikingly colorful design. Birago understood how to masterfully reproduce the emotions on the faces of the people he depicted. Horenbout appended 16 miniatures and two bordures in the enchanting Flemish style to the book of hours. His illuminations distinguish themselves through their rich detail and it is easy to see that the painter was striving for a stylistic harmonization of his depictions with the Italian illustrations. Thus he was successful in uniting the beloved painting style of Flanders with the style of his predecessor, Birago, in a harmonious manner.

Codicology

Alternative Titles
Stundenbuch der Sforza

Type
Manuscript on parchment
Size / Format
696 pages / 13.1 × 9.3 cm

Origin
Italy
Date
Around 1486/90 and around 1520

Epochs
Late Middle Ages Onwards
Style
Renaissance

Genre
Private Devotion Books
Language
Latin
Script
Humanistic minuscule

Illustrations
203 full-page miniatures in golden frames, as well as numerous smaller illuminations and elaborate borders

Content
Book of Hours, use of Rome

Patron
Bona Sforza, Duchess of Milan; Margaret of Austria

Artist / School
Giovan Pietro Birago
Gerard Horenbout
Etienne de Lale

Previous Owners
Sir John Charles Robinson
John Malcolm of Poltalloch
Duke Phillibert III
Margaret of Austria
Charles V