This study deals with the work of the most prolific Dutch book
illuminators, the so-called Masters of the Dark Eyes, named after
the most conspicuous aspect of their style: the dark, heavily
accentuated shadows round the eyes of the figures. With their
elaborately illuminated manuscripts, these masters completely
dominated book production in the County of Holland during the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Their work is
characterized by an overwhelming wealth of decorative and pictorial
richness, which is especially evident in the unusually ornate
programmes of the Books of Hours, and a new type of border
decoration derived from the Ghent-Bruges School. This style of
painting was practised by many artists of differing talents, as
demonstrated by the large number of surviving manuscripts. Not all
of the illuminators worked in Holland. Some of them settled in the
Southern Netherlands, others emigrated to England, where they
illuminated manuscripts for members of the English court.
This monograph seeks to order, analyze and evaluate the work of
the Masters of the Dark Eyes, and to position their achievements
within the context of book illumination in the Northern Netherlands
during the “Waning of the Middle Ages”. It explores a
virtually uncharted territory of Dutch manuscript painting. The
accompanying descriptive catalogue provides complementary
information on more than 70 manuscripts, many of which have never
been published at length before. The work is illustrated with a
wide selection of colour and black-and-white reproductions.