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Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Fishing (verso)

c. 1500–1510
ink, tempera and liquid gold on vellum
Each leaf: 18.1 x 12.9 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/16 in.)
The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2006.13.b
Location: not on view
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Did You Know?

The ape and the wild boar symbolized vice in general and lust in particular during the Middle Ages.

Description

This leaf shows the second half of Psalm 142. The page’s first line reads, “Non avertas faciem tuam a me,” or “Turn not away thy face from me.” This last page of the penitential psalms immediately precedes the litany of saints, which begins on the other side of this leaf. Below the text stands an ape fishing at a small pond across from a large bird, a scene possibly from a fable or simply meant to be amusing or diversionary.
Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Fishing (verso)

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Fishing (verso)

c. 1500–1510

France, Paris or Rouen, 16th century

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