Leaf from a Book of Hours: Annunciation, Nativity and Two Prophets (c. 1485): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Annunciation, Nativity and Two Prophets (c. 1485) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Master of Riccardiana 231 (Italian).

The work and its context

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

This leaf came from a book of hours, a devotional book popular in the Middle Ages. They contained prayers that a devoted individual would use throughout the day. It has been estimated that 1 in 15 households owned a book of hours, although this luxurious example could only have belonged to an aristocratic household.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Book of Hours: Annunciation, Nativity and Two Prophets
• Date: c. 1485
• Creator attribution: Master of Riccardiana 231 (Italian)
• Culture: Italy, Florence
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: tempera and gold on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 15.1 x 9.2 cm (5 15/16 x 3 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1953.280

A detail from the museum

Peacocks were often used in medieval Christian art as a symbol of the resurrection and eternal life.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.