Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Betrayal of Christ (c. 1470–85): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Betrayal of Christ (c. 1470–85) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Maître François (French).

The work and its context

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

This scene depicts the solemn moment of Christ’s arrest in the garden of Gethsemane when the kiss of his apostle, Judas, reveals his identity to captors. Following medieval artistic convention, Judas is usually depicted shorter than Christ. At the right, Simon Peter sheaths his sword while Christ heals the servant whose ear Peter cut off. The style and palette of this leaf are associated with Maître François, whose considerable commercial success encouraged many illuminators to imitate his forms and compositions.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Betrayal of Christ
• Date: c. 1470–85
• Creator attribution: Maître François (French)
• Culture: France, central France, 15th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Leaf: 12.4 x 9.3 cm (4 7/8 x 3 11/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2005.208

A detail from the museum

It is unusual to see two columns of writing in a book of hours.

Collection credit

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby's (Firm). Western Manuscripts and Miniatures. 1986.
• Sotheby's (Firm). Western Manuscripts and Miniatures. 1989.

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.