Collection Online as of March 25, 2023

Pair of Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Adoration of the Magi and Coronation of the Virgin

c. 1415

Part of a set. See all set records

workshop of Boucicaut Master

(French, Paris, active about 1410–25)

France, Paris, 15th century

Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum

Folio: 16.8 x 12.7 cm (6 5/8 x 5 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1955.79

Location

115 Manuscripts & Textiles

Fun Fact

All books of hours contain the same basic sections and were highly customizable.

Description

Books of hours were devotional books popular in the Middle Ages. Meant for laypeople, or those not in the clergy they were used at home and contained daily prayers as well as prayers for specific occasions, such as death, plague, warfare, travel, or bad weather. The heart of every book of hours is the Hours of the Virgin. With this set of prayers, the reader
asked the Virgin Mary to intercede on their behalf. The adoration of the Magi opens sext, the sixth Hour of the Day or Noon. The Coronation of the Virgin begins compline,: which is before retiring.

Provenance

-1955

Dr. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1955-

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Citations

Allen Memorial Art Museum. An Exhibition of Netherlandish Book Illumination, April 22 Thorugh May 12. 1960. Cat. no. 10 a-d

Gothic Art 1360-1440. (1963). The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 50(7). no. 13, p. 188 www.jstor.org

Meiss, Millard, Kathleen Morand, and Edith W. Kirsch. French Painting in the Time of Jean De Berry: The Boucicaut Master. 1968. p. 139

Sotheby's (Firm). Medieval Illuminated Miniatures from the Collection of the Late Eric Korner. 1990. Lots 21-24

Exhibition history

Netherlandish Illumination, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (April 22-May 12, 1960).

Netherlandish Book Illustrations. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (April 22-May 15, 1960).

Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 6-September 15, 1963).

The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours (Gallery 115 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).