Leaf from Book of Hours of Daniel Rym: Saint Daniel in the Lions' Den Revered by the Manuscript Owner Daniel Rym

Description This richly illuminated Book of Hours was created ca. 1420-30 for Elizabeth van Munte and her husband Daniel Rym. The couple is represented throughout the manuscript in a number of ways. Rym's heraldic shield is held by a dragon on fol. 42r, while van Munte's heraldry is found on fol. 18r. Both are also depicted in donor portraits, with van Munte kneeling on fol. 62r and Daniel Rym kneeling before his namesake, St. Daniel, on fol. 168v (seen here). Made for personal use, this exquisite Book of Hours begins each hour with a full-page miniature. Gold is widely used in the illumination, and drolleries throughout the book depict playful figures and hybrids engaging in a variety of activities, such as reading texts, kneeling in devotion, playing with or climbing the foliate fillet of the initials, or emerging from large flowers. Especially touching is a sweet couple embracing on the folio facing the Deposition and the Veronica (fol. 118r).

Exhibitions

• Real People in the Middle Ages: Donor Portraits in Illuminated Manuscripts. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987.
• Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1988.
• Van Eyck. An Optical Revolution. Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Gent. 2020.

Provenance Commissioned by Elizabeth van Munte and Daniel Rym, Ghent, ca. 1420-1430 [1]. Acquired by Léon Gruel, Paris, late 19th-early 20th century; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931. [1] heraldic shield on fols. 18r and 42r, portraits of Daniel Rym on fol. 168v and of Elizabeth van Munte on fol. 62r

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters