Artist · 4 prints
Lieven van Lathem Prints
About Lieven van Lathem
Lieven van Lathem was a Flemish painter and manuscript illuminator, born in Ghent around 1430, and he died in Antwerp in 1493. He became a master of the Ghent painters' guild in 1454 and worked for the dukes of Burgundy, the richest art patrons in northern Europe. In 1462 he moved to Antwerp, where he spent the rest of his life, though he traveled for commissions to Brussels, Bruges and The Hague. In 1468 he helped with decorations for the wedding of Duke Charles the Bold and Margaret of York in Bruges.
Lieven van Lathem is best known as an illuminator. In 1469 he was paid for the miniatures in a small prayer book made for Charles the Bold, with text written by the scribe Nicolas Spierinc, and those documented paintings give scholars their firmest view of his style. They show the influence of the panel painters Jan van Eyck and Dieric Bouts in their careful light and lively detail. The prayer book is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. No panel paintings can be firmly attributed to him.
Lieven van Lathem prints: reproductions of the miniatures Lieven van Lathem painted in 1469 for the Prayer Book of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The collection includes Saint Michael, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, All Saints and Christ Appearing to Saint James the Greater, all from 1469.
This selection draws entirely from that one small prayer book, the work that documents van Lathem's style. The pages show saints and visions: Saint Michael fighting a demon, Saint Anthony surrounded by tempting figures, a crowd of all the saints, and Christ appearing to Saint James. Each scene is set in a detailed landscape or interior with careful light, painted at a very small scale.
The gold, deep reds and blues suit studies, libraries, bedrooms and quiet reading corners, and the small, upright pages work well hung in pairs or above a desk. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
