Annunciation to the Shepherds: Leaf from a Book of Hours (1 of 6 Excised Leaves) (c. 1420–30): Art, History and Details

Annunciation to the Shepherds: Leaf from a Book of Hours (1 of 6 Excised Leaves) (c. 1420–30) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Henri d'Orquevaulx (French); Workshop.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This leaf survives from what must have been an extraordinarily rich book of hours. The elaborate Passion cycle and Suffrages point to an important patron. Internal evidence within the original calendar and texts indicates that Metz was the probable place of production. Stylistically, the illuminations appear to come from the workshop of Henri d’Orquevaulx, a documented Metz manuscript painter. Compositionally, structurally, and stylistically, the miniatures suggest strong links to Netherlandish illumination. It is not known whether d’Orquevaulx came originally from the Netherlands or whether he simply worked or trained there at some point in his career.

Object facts

• Title: Annunciation to the Shepherds: Leaf from a Book of Hours (1 of 6 Excised Leaves)
• Date: c. 1420–30
• Creator attribution: Henri d'Orquevaulx (French); Workshop
• Culture: France, Metz
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Each leaf: 16.1 x 12.4 cm (6 5/16 x 4 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1999.128

A detail from the museum

Books of hours were devotional books popular in the Middle Ages and meant for laypeople, or those not in the clergy.

Collection credit

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc. Printed Books and Manuscripts Including an Important Manuscript Map of Southeastern North America, 1721. 1978.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.