Leaf from a Manuscript

Maître François

about 1460–1470

Tempera colors, gold leaf, and gold paint, Tempera Colors, Gold paint

J. Paul Getty Museum

A procession of armored figures on horseback and on foot moves past a walled city. One figure, dressed in white, appears to be a captive being led away. This page would have once been part of a lavishly illustrated manuscript completed sometime during the middle of the fifteenth century in France. It is unknown what text the image would have accompanied, as the back of the leaf is blank, but the fact that the figures lack halos and it shows a scene of a man being led as a prisoner indicate that the book was likely secular in origin, meaning that it was not designed for worship or primarily religious use. The image, depicting soldiers leading a captive away from a fortified city, was likely illustrated by the Maître François, an anonymous French painter active in Paris between 1460 a