Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune
Year: 2005
Author/artist: François Righi
Publisher: D'ailleurs-l'image en Tant & Temps
François Righi, text and screen print in Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune (p. 4–5)
For Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune, François Righi drew inspiration from a richly illuminated book of hours (c. 1540) from the collections of the KB. Righi created a conceptual response: a new artist’s book that reinterprets certain elements of the manuscript’s visual language.
Ivoy-le-Pré
Righi was born into a family of artists: his father was a painter, his mother a musician. From an early age, he was surrounded by the arts. Although he attended the art academy in Lyon for a short time, Righi is largely self-taught. His artistic development was shaped by thorough analytical studies of artists such as William Blake, Pierre Guastalla and Jean Delpech. After extensive travels through Mexico, Righi settled in Ivoy-le-Pré, a village south of Paris, where he established his own studio and publishing house: first under the name Le tailleur d’images, the under D’ailleurs l’image and most recently under Les livres sont muets. Since 1975, artist’s books have formed a central part of his oeuvre. Righi prefers to publish under his own imprint, but sometimes, as in this case, he collaborates with another publisher.
(Un)predictability
Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune, cover and cassette
His deep fascination with medieval symbolism is undeniable in Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune. The original manuscript contains a frontispiece and twelve full-page miniatures depicting Jean Lallemant as a witness to biblical scenes, such as the Annunciation and the Last Judgement. Righi’s conceptual response to this manuscript comprises a single additional illustration. In this work, he focused on certain aspects of the manuscript. Righi retained the order and the exact shape and size of the twelve images but reduced them to two recurring motifs: the cross that Lallemant carries with him and the pattern of his hair shirt, which is reminiscent of chain mail.
However, Righi omits other elements of the manuscript. For instance, he makes no mention of the placement of the miniatures in relation to the text, the numerous illuminated initials, or the marginal decorations featuring skull motifs. The blue book, which appears in every miniature, also seems to be ignored at first. Yet this colour is indirectly echoed in Righi’s publication, which comes in a blue cover.
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François Righi, screen print in Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune (p. 10)
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Miniature on p. 48 (recto) in the book of hours of Jean Lallemant. Shelfmark: KW 74 G 38.
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François Righi, screen print in Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune (p. 18)
In each of Righi’s illustrations, the cross and the hair shirt are positioned in exactly the same way, with the shirt as a gap in the pattern, invisible – an illustration of the title ‘muet’ (mute). The grid pattern is different in every image, depending on the direction and the size of the cross. In the first illustration, Righi brings together all the positions of the cross in black ink and all the grid patterns in red ink. The pattern of the crosses reappears in the final illustration, barely visible against a black background. Here, the figure of Lallemant as he appears in the final miniature is also added.
Righi’s illustrations are screen prints. Running alongside and partly overlapping the carefully arranged, geometric patterns are lines, loops, circles and small splashes of ink. These marks were created by Righi dipping a silk thread in red or orange ink and then letting it fall onto the paper. Because these marks are entirely random and therefore differ in every copy, they introduce an element of unpredictability that contrasts with the precision of the printed compositions. Moreover, this unpredictability can be interpreted as a reflection on human fate: even within carefully ordered systems, life remains partly determined by chance. This lends the work an additional layer of meaning that ties in with the medieval theme of devotion.
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François Righi, screen prints in Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune (p. 10–11)
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François Righi, screen prints in Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune (p. 16–17)
A conceptual perspective
Righi’s book can be seen as a modern conceptual response to the medieval manuscript he so admired. His text is limited to a brief introduction in the beginning of the book and is printed in antique olive by Emile Moreau. The illustrations were all printed by Jean Marie Biardeau. The book was published by Righi himself (éditions D’ailleurs-l’image) and by Biardeau (Tant & Temps).
Bibliographical description
Description: Un livre muet pour Jean Lallemant le Jeune / François Righi ; texte et sérigraphies de François Righi. - Ivoy-le-Pré : D’ailleurs-l’image ; Tant & Temps, 2005. - 19 p. ; 23 cm.
Printer: Jean-Marie Biardeau (screen prints) and Emile Moreau (typography)
Edition: 30 copies on Rivolo-paper
This copy: No. 26
Note: Signed by the artist
Shelfmark: KW KOOPM A10020
References
- Paul van Capelleveen, ‘Les livres sont muets, François Righi’, in Artists & others. The imaginative French book in the 21st century. Koopman Collection, National Library of the Netherlands. Nijmegen, Vantilt Publishers, 2016, pp. 186–191.
- François Righi : summa pavonica. Limoges, Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain du Limousin, 1991.
