Instructor: François Pageau (Campus Saint-Jean) & Rob Desjardins (Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies)

Description: Each book of hours is unique, a custom-made work of art that was used–in part–for a public display of wealth and status as well as devotion. Join us as we take a closer look at one of the treasures in Bruce Peel Special Collections, a manuscript book of hours produced in the Low Countries between 1430 and 1440. We’ll offer an in-depth exploration of pigment use in fifteenth-century Books of Hours, with particular attention to manuscripts produced in Flanders and Northern France. Participants will examine how illuminators layered pigments such as ultramarine, vermilion, azurite, and gold leaf to achieve the rich chromatic brilliance that characterized the period’s devotional art. In addition to the material analysis, the workshop will introduce participants to key aspects of medieval symbolic iconography, highlighting how recurring visual codes—flowers, animals, gestures, and architectural frames—conveyed complex spiritual and moral messages. 

This in-person workshop is open to the University of Alberta community.