The Meanings of Devotional Space: Female Owner-Portraits in Three French and Flemish Books of Hours

Heures du Duc de Berry (c.1411) is among the most famous, but in no way presents an anomaly. Books of Hours however, from the evidence of i.e. wills and catalogues, are seen as particularly assoc iated with wom en. 2 Undoubtedly, some women had influence over the kinds of images depicted in their Hours and even over their ‘portraits’, but lack of evidence usually means that this can only be speculation. Moreover, Hours were often given to women as gifts, constructed by male patrons, con fessors and artists. 3 I have adopted the term ‘owner-portraits ’ – though they are not portraits in the modern sense of the word – because it conveys two important notions: 1) that women would identify the images as themselves, and 2) that there was an emerg ing awareness of individual identity at this time. Furthermore i t avoids the limitations of terms such as ‘donor ’ or ‘patron ’ which im ply a control over product ion that does not necessarily exist