The Black Hours, MS M.493 (or the Morgan Black Hours) is an illuminated book of hours completed in Bruges between 1460 and 1475. It consists of 121 pages (leaves), with Latin text written in Gothic minuscule script. The words are arranged in rows of fourteen lines and follow the Roman version of the texts. The lettering is inscribed in silver and gold and placed within borders ornamented with flowers, foliage and grotesques, on pages dyed a deep blueish black. It contains fourteen full-page miniatures and opens with the months of the liturgical calendar (folios 3 verso – 14 recto), followed by the Hours of the Virgin, and ends with the Office of the Dead (folio 121v).
MS M.493 has been in the collection of the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, since 1912. It is one of seven surviving black books of hours, all originating from Bruges and dated to the mid-to-late 15th century. They are so named for their unusual dark blueish appearance, a colourisation achieved through the expensive process of dyeing the vellum with iron gall ink. This dye is very corrosive and the surviving examples are mostly badly decomposed; MS M.493 is in relatively good condition due to its very thick parchment.
The book is a masterpiece of Late Gothic manuscript illumination. However, no records survive of its commission, but its uniquely dark tone, expense of production, quality and rarity suggest ownership by privileged and sophisticated members of the Burgundian court. The book is often attributed, on stylistic grounds, to a follower of Willem Vrelant, a leading and influential Flemish illuminator.
Commission
The black books of hours are a grouping of four to five (some books so defined contain only a few pages in this style) extant Flemish illuminated manuscripts so named for their dark appearance. The effect was achieved by soaking the vellum in black dye or ink before they were lettered with gold and silver leaf. The black dye was highly corrosive and so the metals had to be of high purity, and the vellum needed to be unusually thick to survive the process. The black manuscripts date from about 1455–80 and include the "Black Hours, Hispanic Society, New York" (c. 1458), "Black Hours of Galeazzo Maria Sforza" (c. 1466–67) and the "Hours of Mary of Burgundy" (c. 1477). The artwork is of a sophisticated and unusual taste, and the uncommon colour of the pages likely carried an almost mystical aura for the owner. MS M.493 can thus be assumed as intended for high nobility; probably from the court of Philip the Good or Charles the Bold.
The members of the Burgundian court were known to have had a preference for dark, sombre colours, and the black books can be assumed to have been designed specifically for their taste. Black books were more highly regarded than conventional illuminated books of hours, and today art historians assume they were commissioned by the court of Philip the Good. Philip's proclivity for black arose from the brutal assassination in 1419 of his father John the Fearless. The funeral procession was lined with 2000 black flags with black standards. From then on Philip wore only black clothes, as an expression of his grief. The style was adapted by other members of the court, who seem to have favoured black against gold and silver in artworks as well in formal dress, as can be seen in Rogier van der Weyden's contemporary Jean Wauquelin presenting his 'Chroniques de Hainaut' to Philip the Good. Emperor Maximilian I observed of the Burgundian rulers that their collections were "luxurious, the home treasury, and the library full of treasures, and the court ceremonial were oriented on a godlike super-elevation of the ruler."
Attribution
The manuscript does not contain any family crest to identify the donor, who, given the expense of the book and its labour-intensive production, is assumed to have been a high-ranking member of court. Feast days noted in the calendars, including for Donatian of Reims (14 October), indicate it was produced in Bruges, or given the inclusion of the feast of Livinus (12 November), possibly in Ghent.