Leaf from a Book of Hours: St. Matthew (c. 1415–20): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Book of Hours: St. Matthew (c. 1415–20) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Limbourg Brothers (Netherlandish).

The work and its context

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

The style of this miniature can be linked to the Limbourg Brothers, celebrated Dutch miniature painters who were active in France, particularly Burgundy. They are known to have first worked for Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and later for Duke Jean de Berry. The palette of this miniature, with its ultramarine blues, soft pink, and pale green, as well as the crisp geometric pattern behind the figure, is typical of the Limbourgs’ work. In a book of hours, this miniature would have introduced the start of the gospel lessons.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Book of Hours: St. Matthew
• Date: c. 1415–20
• Creator attribution: Limbourg Brothers (Netherlandish)
• Culture: France, Paris (?), 15th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Leaf: 18.1 x 13 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2005.204

A detail from the museum

This miniature would have marked the beginning of the gospel hours in a book of hours.

Collection credit

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.