“Baptism of Christ”
This tempera, gold, and ink on parchment paper painting known as the “Baptism of Christ”, is by “Hand G” who is presumed to be the Flemish art master, Jan van Eyck. It is a miniature, dated to approximately 1420, from an illuminated manuscript commissioned for the medieval art collector, Jean de Berry titled Heures de Turin-Milan (the Turin-Milan Hours).
This manuscript was originally a prayer book, liturgical book, and book of hours all combined into one. It was illustrated by Jan van Eyck, Hubert van Eyck (Jan’s brother), Jean d’Orléans, along with other French and Flemish artists.
Turin-Milan Hours was created over the course of about 60 years. Work on it began in approximately 1380. This manuscript was likely originally created for Jean de Berry (John), a duke who was the brother to Charles V, the king of France. He commissioned and was a collector of illuminated manuscripts and had quite the collection. Unfortunately, his art addiction consumed most of his estate’s finances and when he died in 1416, he was deep in debt.
After Jean de Berry passed, the book was passed on to his treasurer, Robinet d’Estampes, who actually divided the book up into three sections. The section with the Book of Hours became known as Très Belles Heures de Notre-Dame and the prayer book section became known as the Turin-Milan Hours.
John of Bavaria, who was a Count of Holland, acquired the Turin-Milan Hours section around 1420 and commissioned Flemish artists to add more pages to it. At some point, it was passed on to Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy. It is believed that is when Jan van Eyck added his contributions, as he was the court artist at the time and a favorite of Philip the Good.
In 1904, a fire destroyed 93 leaves from the Turin-Milan Hours book. The rest of the book was divided at auction with 28 leaves that include 25 miniature paintings being sold to the Turin City Museum and 7 leaves sold to the Louvre in Paris, France.
As the art within the illuminated manuscript wasn’t signed, in 1911, the Belgian art historian, Georges Hulin de Loo, assessed the paintings and separated the art into the work of 11 artists: Hand A through Hand K. Because of the depth of perspective and overall quality of the work, it is believed that Hand G was the artist, Jan van Eyck.
The “Baptism of Christ” is found on folio 93-v and is located on the bottom part of the page. It is currently in the collections of the Palazzo Madama Civic Museum of Ancient Art in Turin, Italy. It was recently removed from display for conservation reasons but is expected to be back up for viewing in the spring of 2018.
For more on Jan van Eyck, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
