THE GODFATHER IS A STRANGER: THE ORIGIN OF THE PAINTING'S NAME

　The Condé Museum, located in the Château de Chantilly north of Paris has in its collection the Limbourg brother's Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which is said to be the most expensive and most beautiful book in the world.

　Although the name of the painting is quite exaggerated, the original name of this book was simply book of hours.

　The book of hours is a book containing the prayers that Christians recite during their seven daily prayers. When books of hours became popular at the end of the Middle Ages, deluxe editions of books of hours were created that included colorful miniatures (miniature illustrations) in addition to the books.

　Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is one such book, and is a masterpiece of miniatures in the book of hours.

　The owner of this masterpiece is Jean (1340-1416) was the third son of King Jean Ⅱ of France, who owned the Berry region in central France and was known as the Duke of Berry.

　He was a powerful royal family at the time, who rule over one-third of France and assisted his brother and nephew who became King of France at the same time.

　Jean de Berry, who has overwhelming power and wealth is a patron of painters.

　The Limbourg brothers were employed as court painters in the Duke of Berry, and they created Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry without hesitation.

　It is certainly a wonderful work, but the title of this work is so self-congratulatory that it makes we feel overly pretentious.

　In fact, neither Jean de Berry nor the Limbourg brothers came up with the name of this work. Not only during the time of Jean de Berry but until modern times, there was no custom of naming works of art.

　So, what are the titles currently attached to each work? They are identification symbols given by people involved at the time or by posterity in order to distinguish them from other works.

　In order to distinguish it from the numerous books of hours, this work was named Les Tres Riches Heures of Jean Duke of Berry, as it is a very richly colored book of hours owned by the Duke of Berry.

　It purposely added the word Tres (very much) to make it distinguishable from other books of hours. In fact, in addition to this work, Jean Duke of Berry also owned a book of hours called Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry.

　For Jean Duke of Berry, a member of the royal family assisting the King of France, Les Tres Riches Heures of Jean Duke of Berry was probably just one of the many works of art in the palace.

　After the Duke of Berry's death, it was listed in the inventory of his estate as Les Tres Riches Heures of Jean Duke of Berry, so it became the name of this work. The person who invented the name of the work is thought to have been a servant of the Duke of Berry.

　The same goes for other masterpieces from around the world.

　Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is a depiction of the last supper of the saint Jesus with the 12 apostles, the day before his execution. It's so famous that there's no need for qualifiers like so magnificent.

　Nike of Samothrace is a statue of Nike the goddess of victory, discovered on the island of Samothrace, commonly known as Samothrace in the northern Aegean Sea.

　Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer, commonly known as Girl with a Blue Turban is Portrait of a Girl with a Pearl Earring.

　If you look at it correctly, it is what it is. Because it is an identification symbol.

　Therefore, they do not use abstract concepts such as anguish for the future or chaotic hope in the title of their work. This is because subjective feelings lack objectivity and cannot be distinguished from other works leading to confusion.

　It will give the work a specific and clear name so that no matter who, when, or how you look at it, it will not be mistaken. Good or bad taste is not necessary, rather it gets in the way.

　It wasn't until modern times that authors developed the habit of devising names for their works.

　Examples include Claude Monet's Impressions, Sunrise (1872). Monet himself invented the name of this painting, which depicts the landscape of Le Havre a port city in northwestern France.

　Incidentally, young painters at the time who were inspired by this work created many works in a style that uniquely expressed their own emotions, which was different from that of the traditional art world. The origin of Impressionism, which had a great influence on the development of modern painting comes from this work.

　In contemporary paintings, artists are also creative with the names of their works, such as using foreign languages such as English and French in their titles. Some works are deliberately left untitled.

　It is also fun to look as a work with the name and the title of the work to understand what the author was thinking when their created this work.