Miniature from a Book of Hours: The Pentecost (c. 1500): Art, History and Details

Miniature from a Book of Hours: The Pentecost (c. 1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean Poyet (French).

The work and its context

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

In the 1400s, the city of Tours became the seat of the French royal court. With a simultaneous flourishing of the arts in the city, Tours became the center of an important school of illuminators and painters. The work of Jean Poyet, an influential artist in this school, was much in demand within court circles. Not only an illuminator, Poyet was also a painter and draftsman whose travels to Renaissance Italy influenced his style. He was a master of perspective and the subtle use of color and light to create figures who realistically occupy the space.

Object facts

• Title: Miniature from a Book of Hours: The Pentecost
• Date: c. 1500
• Creator attribution: Jean Poyet (French)
• Culture: France, Tours
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Sheet: 17.5 x 11.7 cm (6 7/8 x 4 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1924.426

A detail from the museum

Jean Poyet was multitalented; he was an illuminator, painter, and draftsman.

Collection credit

Gift from J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ricci, Seymour de, William Jerome Wilson, Anne M. Nill, and W. H. Bond. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 1935.
• Plummer, John, and Gregory T. Clark. The Last Flowering: French Painting in Manuscripts, 1420-1530 : from American Collections. 1982.
• Hofmann, Mara. Jean Poyer: das Gesamtwerk. Turnhout: Brepols, 2004.

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.