The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Leaf from a Book of Hours: St. Barbara (2 of 2 Excised Leaves)

Leaf from a Book of Hours: St. Barbara (2 of 2 Excised Leaves)

c. 1465
(French)
France, Eastern France or Paris (?), 15th century
ink, tempera and gold on vellum
Leaf: 23.7 x 18.6 cm (9 5/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2011.63
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The owner of a book of hours was intended to stop eight times a day and read the appropriate devotional text.

Description

Saint Barbara was popular in France, known for being imprisoned in a tower by her father and living as a hermit. In piety, she asked builders to construct her three windows to symbolize the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Her father, enraged by her conversion to Christianity, killed her, after which he was struck by lightning from heaven. She was seen as a protector from sudden death, a common medieval concern, and the patron saint of architects and builders. The text on this leaf is in French, as opposed to Latin.
  • -1894
    Damascène Morgand, Paris, France, sold to Thomas Yates Thompson
    1894-1904
    Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), London, England
    May 3, 1904
    (Sale: Sotheby's, London, May 3, 1904, no. 31)
    [Bruce Ferrini, Akron, Ohio], sold to Jeanne Miles Blackburn
    -2011
    Jeanne Miles Blackburn, Maitland, Fl, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2011-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Thompson, Henry Yates, and M. R. James. A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson. Cambridge [England]: University Press, 1898. no.15
    Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge. Catalogue of Valuable Books and Illuminated and Other Manuscripts: Which Will Be Sold by Auction ... on Tuesday, the 3rd Day of May, 1904. London: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1904. no. 31
    Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 53, cat. no. 51 archive.org
  • The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours (Gallery 115 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).
    The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000).
  • {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Book of Hours: St. Barbara (2 of 2 Excised Leaves)|url=false|author=Master of Jacques de Luxembourg|year=c. 1465|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.63