Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Presentation in the Temple with Roundels of the Casting of Lots, the Deposition, and Pietà (None, Office of the Virgin)

Master of Adélaïde de Savoie

Date

c. 1460–70

Medium

ink, tempera and gold on vellum

Culture

France, probably Poitiers, 15th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The style of this miniature, with its oval faces, abundant draperies, and use of border roundels, follows very closely the characteristics of the Master of Adélaïde de Savoie, who takes his name from a book in Chantilly (Musée Condé, MS. 1362). His activity points to Poitiers in western France as a possible place of production for this piece. The miniature features the unusual placement of roundels showing scenes taken from Christ's Passion against an episode from the life of the Virgin. The main miniature, the Presentation in the Temple, depicts the bringing of the infant Jesus to the Temple forty days after his birth to be consecrated according to Jewish law. During the ceremony, the temple's priest, Simeon, foretold that "Mary's heart would be pierced through her child." The roundels visually dovetail the central miniature. The images and decorated initials in the book helped users navigate to sections they needed while also offering details to provoke meditation and prayer, leading to books of hours sometimes being referred to as “painted prayers.”

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