Leaf from Book of Hours: Matins, Initial "D" with Pentecost and Marginal Drollery of a Man Battling an Ape

This Book of Hours was likely produced for a member of the Augustinian Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre at Lille along the Flemish-French border. The patron may have had himself depicted in the opening initial for the Penitential Psalms on fol. 125r, shown kneeling before an altar in prayer with hands extended to heaven, from which God emerges in a cloud, blessing the man and carrying a black book. A significant number of feast days in the calendar are devoted to saints venerated in Lille, and the proximity of St. Peter to the Virgin in the Pentecost historiated initial on fol. 13r may further suggest a connection to Saint-Pierre at Lille. Historiated and inhabited initials, drolleries, and vignettes are painted simply with dark outlines to delineate forms. Decorated initials and marginal ornament combine a calligraphic elegance with bold outlines that ultimately circumscribe the ornament. The ivory plaque depicting the Coronation of the Virgin below a trefoil Gothic arch was inserted into the front cover in the nineteenth century, although the ivory itself dates to the fourteenth century and was carved in either Flanders or Germany.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Acquired by Léon Gruel, Paris, late 19th century [1]; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, early 20th century (?); by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931. [1] His bookplate no. 68 on the front pastedown