Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Fishing (verso)

Date: c. 1500–1510
Medium: ink, tempera and liquid gold on vellum
Culture: France, Paris or Rouen, 16th century
Department: Medieval Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

This leaf shows the second half of Psalm 142. The page’s first line reads, “Non avertas faciem tuam a me,” or “Turn not away thy face from me.” This last page of the penitential psalms immediately precedes the litany of saints, which begins on the other side of this leaf. Below the text stands an ape fishing at a small pond across from a large bird, a scene possibly from a fable or simply meant to be amusing or diversionary. The ape and the wild boar symbolized vice in general and lust in particular during the Middle Ages.

View at Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Hunting Wild Boars (recto) and Ape Fishing (verso)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Hunting Wild Boars (recto)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Adjoining Leaves from a Book of Hours: Penitential Psalms and King David in Prayer (2 of 3 Excised Leaves)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Text (verso)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Psalter with Historiated Initial (B): King David

Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man (Prefatory Miniature to the Office of the Virgin) (recto) and Text with Illustrated Border (verso) (1 of 3 Excised Leaves)

Cleveland Museum of Art