Christ washing the feet of the apostles, from a prayer book illuminated by Master of Claude de France, circa 1518鈥�20. (Harvard University, Houghton Library)
The McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, in collaboration with Harvard University鈥檚 Houghton Library and Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, presents a groundbreaking exhibition that charts nearly a millennium in the history of European painting.
Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections comprises a total of 260 bound volumes, single leaves, and cuttings from nineteen Boston-area libraries and museums. It is the largest exhibition of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and early printed books ever to take place in North America.
It also is the inaugural exhibition at the McMullen Museum鈥檚 new . On display will be 180 European illuminations from sixteen Boston-area collections, dating from the eleventh to sixteenth century.
The multi-venue display opens at Boston College on September 12 and runs through December 11, 2016, with an opening celebration to preview Beyond Words and the new McMullen Museum venue on September 10 and 11 for local community members, friends of the museum, and Boston College alumni.
In addition to its concurrent displays, this collaborative metropolitan project is notable for the size of its curatorial team and number of lending institutions. Beyond Words is the first exhibition to showcase highlights of medieval and Renaissance illumination in the Boston area鈥攃ollections that constitute one of the most important ensembles of such manuscripts anywhere in North America. Each venue will feature one of the three principal contexts for the production of books in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and related developments in design, script, and decoration.
听鈥淔or the inaugural exhibition in its new museum in Boston, the McMullen is pleased to collaborate with colleagues across the city in organizing and hosting the largest portion of one of the most comprehensive and scholarly-ambitious manuscript exhibitions ever mounted in this country,鈥� said McMullen Museum Director and Professor of Art History Nancy Netzer.
鈥淢ore than 180 works will be on display鈥攎any for the first time鈥攊n the Museum鈥檚 newly dedicated Daley and Monan galleries. Published by the McMullen, the exhibition鈥檚 catalogue is a seminal reference work to which eighty-five scholars from around the world have contributed entries and essays鈥攂ringing together for the first time research on the most splendid medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts preserved in the Boston area.鈥�
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鈥淚t鈥檚 wonderful that Beyond Words will be the first exhibition in Boston College鈥檚 impres