Getty Museum
Mass for the Dead
Creator
Willem VrelantFlemish Illuminator · 1481–1481
All works by this person →Willem Vrelant was one of the most prolific, influential, and commercially successful illuminators working in Bruges during the third quarter of the 1400s. He moved from his home in Utrecht to Bruges sometime before 1454, when he was recorded as an active member of the Bruges guild of Saint John the Evangelist, which served illuminators, scribes, parchment-makers, and others involved in the book t
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- early 1460s
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink
- Culture
- Flemish
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- 54bba5ee-76f5-4330-aa83-9ec0057702d5
The black-robed figures that surround the draped coffin in this miniature are probably professional mourners, hired for the funeral. The crippled beggar on crutches approaching on the right was probably also hired for the occasion. The poor were considered especially good intercessors on behalf of the souls of the dead, so it became common during the later Middle Ages to arrange for the distribution of food and alms to the poor on the day of a funeral. On the left, four monks stand before an open choir book wearing elaborate copes, while a priest performs the Mass for the dead at the altar. The owner of this prayer book was meant to reflect on this image and the accompanying Office of the Dead on a daily basis as a reminder of humanity's mortality and the need for penitence and charity to achieve salvation.
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