Book of Hours

Unknown

after 1460

Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink, Tempera Colors, Ink

J. Paul Getty Museum

A religious illumination depicts a gathering of figures around a central pedestal displaying a lamb. Decorative borders frame the central scene. This Flemish book of hours, a kind of Christian prayer book, features five full-page images with multicolored floral borders and twenty-three historiated initials adorned with gold. Historiated initials are large, sometimes even monumental, letters that contain narrative imagery. The narrative program in this manuscript depicts episodes from the life and death of Christ, from his conception and birth to his entombment and ascension to heaven. Images of saints and Old Testament figures like King David, the author believed to have written the biblical Psalms that form many of the prayers in this volume, can also be found. In one idios