Theban Cycle - from "The Book of Hours"

Harry Todd

From the Fort Mason Printmakers portfolio of 1978. Compiled by artist Eleanor Rappe, the portfolio was published in a loose-leaf collection of 21 full-sheet intaglios of varying techniques. The preface explains the theme of the portfolio as such: "In the middle ages devotional Books of Hours based in the monastic daily prayer cycle were compiled for both clergymen and laymen. The contents and illustrations varied greatly from book to book as there was a separate set of offices for each hour of the all the feast days of the years. The late middle ages saw the illustrations for the books become an end in themselves.

"In this folio we have used the concept of the hours of the day as a framework. Each artist has chosen an hour of special significance and interpreted that hour within the contaext of his or her personal imgery. While these prints do not have a religious meaning in the traditional sense of the word they do become a devotional in each artist's commitment to this contemporary translation of a medieval format."