Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H with the Nativity (recto) (c. 1480): Art, History and Details

Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H with the Nativity (recto) (c. 1480) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The peacock in the lower right margin is used here as a symbol of immortality. In the ancient world the peacock's flesh was thought to be incorruptible—to never decay—and was thus an appropriate symbol for the Virgin Mary who was taken bodily into heaven. The peacock is often used as an accessory illustration for representations of the Nativity. The text for this leaf is the first matins response for Christmas Day and begins Hodie nobis celorum rex (On this day the King of Heaven). The leaf survives with two known sister leaves with text and illustrations that refer to Saint Clare, who was widely venerated during the Middle Ages. She is closely associated with Saint Francis, who installed her with a group of Benedictine nuns in a community at Assisi. Francis prescribed an austere way of life for the nuns who thereafter were known as the Poor Clares. The saint died in 1253 and was canonized in 1255. The prominent references to Clare in the parent manuscript to which this leaf belongs indicate that it was made for a religious community belonging to that order, perhaps in Augsburg or elsewhere in South Germany.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H with the Nativity (recto)
• Date: c. 1480
• Culture: Germany, possibly Augsburg
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Leaf: 62.5 x 41 cm (24 5/8 x 16 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2014.25.a

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.