Illuminating faith : the Bute Book of Hours

"The Bute Book of Hours, an English manuscript dating to c. 1500 in The Berger Collection at the Denver Art Museum, has received cursory attention from scholars in the past. This paper is the first to conduct a comprehensive examination of the object, evaluating its style, iconography, content, religious significance, and patronage. Careful study has revealed that the Bute Book is greatly indebted to early engravings for its imagery, perhaps more than any other known manuscript. The suffrages to saints were selected based on their powers against the plague, Tudor religious preferences, and regional significance. Special attention has been given to more unusual insertions such as Sts. Armel and Ninian, and Henry VI. The Bute Book of Hours was created for a wealthy Englishman, most likely with Yorkshire connections, and it illustrates the tenor of a nation undergoing rapid political, social and religious changes"

A Study of the Martyrdom Altarpiece

"This paper will explore an unstudied fifteenth-century English alabaster altarpiece referred to as the Martyrdom Altarpiece. Based on dated and current scholarship, this analysis postulates two scenarios of the object's history. The first scenario postulates the Martyrdom Altarpiece as being commissioned by the Carthusian order. This position is based on stylistic and iconographic readings of the object that correlate with Carthusian analogs. These interpretations are strengthened by documentation sold with the Martyrdom Altarpiece during its 1978 auction sale. Scenario two argues that the Martyrdom Altarpiece's origins are not Carthusian, furthermore suggesting that the object is a composite or truncated piece"