The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 20, 2024
Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead: Angel Chasing a Devil (recto)
c. 1460
circle of Coëtivy Master
(French)
Leaf: 19.7 x 14.3 cm (7 3/4 x 5 5/8 in.)
The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2005.206.a
Location: not on view
Description
The elaborate floral and foliated borders of this leaf, decorating the top, bottom, and sides of both recto and verso, contain four separate elements: blue and gold acanthus leaves, gold-leaf ivy vines, sprays of flowers or fruit, and a grotesque. Here the margin prominently includes an illuminated roundel with an angel chasing a devil with a lance. As a time-saving device, illuminators in the 1450s and later would often paint identical borders on both sides of a leaf. The motifs would be drawn on one side and then traced on the other by holding the leaf against a window. The manuscript from which this leaf came is no longer intact. It included numerous painted roundels relating to the lives of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the more obscure Saint Alexis. It is possible that the manuscript originally belonged to a married couple for whom these saints served as patrons.- [Bruce Ferrini, Akron]
- Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 52, cat. no. 49 archive.org
- The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000).CMA, 19 December 1999 - 27 February 2000, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, cat. 49, illus. p. 52.
- {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead: Angel Chasing a Devil (recto)|url=false|author=Coëtivy Master|year=c. 1460|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.206.a