Leaf from a Book of Hours: Text (verso) (c. 1410–20): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Text (verso) (c. 1410–20) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Boethius Illuminator (Flemish, active c. 1414–20).

The work and its context

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

This finely preserved leaf with its large miniature is stylistically consistent with the work of the Boethius Illuminator. An unusual and very original painter, he was named after a manuscript copy of the works of the Roman philosopher Boethius (AD 480-524), which he illuminated in 1414. The artist favored bright, sweeping colors and expressionistic compositions. He used tessellated (mosaic-patterned) grounds in his miniatures, as is the case here. The Boethius Illuminator and his assistants participated in the illustration of over a dozen manuscripts between 1414 and 1418/20. It was not unusual for artists working in different styles to collaborate on a single book of hours during the 1400s and 1500s.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Book of Hours: Text (verso)
• Date: c. 1410–20
• Creator attribution: Boethius Illuminator (Flemish, active c. 1414–20)
• Culture: France, Paris (?), 15th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Leaf: 17 x 12.1 cm (6 11/16 x 4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2014.22.b

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.