Getty Museum

Leaf from a Book of Hours

Date

about 1480–1490

Medium

Tempera colors and gold

Culture

Franco-Flemish

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

Once a part of a Christian devotional manuscript known as a book of hours, this page showcases a change in artistic styles between 1470 and 1480 that led to a more refined approach to how artists and illuminators of the period responded to the depiction of nature in northern Europe. Illuminators located in the Flemish towns of Ghent and Bruges (now Belgium) developed a style of decorative borders that incorporated flowers, fruits, and insects, all set against a wide colored background, that aimed to show the wonders of nature through God’s diverse creations. Such borders have been praised for their scientific accuracy and their contributions to the early study of botany and entomology. This leaf is a clear example of how the style, known as the “strewn-pattern,” would become synonymous with the Ghent-Bruges school of illumination. The text, which begins with the Latin phrase *Deus in adiutorium meum intende* (“Oh God, come to my assistance”), is taken from the biblical book of poetry known as the Psalms and opens many prayers in the book of hours. This page would have once opened terce of the Hours of the Cross and would likely have faced an image related to Christ’s Passion.

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