From the Middle Ages to Michigan Avenue, Chicago Exhibition Week

Public hours:

Monday, September 14 through Sunday, September 20, 

10 AM–5 PM
Appointments available outside regular hours.

Les Enluminures is delighted to return to the fourth Chicago Exhibition Week with From the Middle Ages to Michigan Avenue, a special week-long exhibition in our Magnificent Mile gallery. Bringing together a curated selection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, miniatures, and jewelry, the exhibition offers visitors an accessible introduction to this remarkable field.

The Middle Ages are closer than you think. Take a walk down Michigan Avenue and explore up close how these treasures were made, used, loved, and collected—and why they continue to speak so powerfully to collectors today.

Highlights of the exhibition include an exceptionally important Roman de la Rose manuscript, illuminated by Jean Semont in Tournai around 1390. Presenting one of the greatest love stories in French literature, the manuscript offers a rare glimpse into the emergence of Flemish realism before Jan van Eyck. Also featured is a group of calendar miniatures depicting the Labors of the Months and the Zodiac Signs, painted around 1410 by the Luçon Master, a leading figure in the “golden age” of Parisian manuscript illumination and an artist closely connected to the Duke of Berry. A sixteenth-century cameo of Mary, Queen of Scots brings the exhibition into the world of historic jewelry, where Renaissance courtly adornment could also serve as a powerful yet discreet expression of political and religious allegiance.