The Nativity: Leaf from a Book of Hours (3 of 6 Excised Leaves) (c. 1420–30): Art, History and Details
The Nativity: Leaf from a Book of Hours (3 of 6 Excised Leaves) at the Cleveland Museum of Art: c. 1420–30, ink, tempera, and gold on vellum. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
The Nativity: Leaf from a Book of Hours (3 of 6 Excised Leaves) (c. 1420–30) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Henri d'Orquevaulx (French); Workshop.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
This leaf survives from what must have been an extraordinarily rich book of hours. Stylistically, the illuminations relate to the workshop of Henri d'Orquevaulx, a documented Metz manuscript painter. Little is known about d'Orquevaulx's life or career. Compositionally, structurally, and stylistically, the miniatures suggest strong links to Netherlandish illumination.
Object facts
- Title: The Nativity: Leaf from a Book of Hours (3 of 6 Excised Leaves)
- Date: c. 1420–30
- Creator attribution: Henri d'Orquevaulx (French); Workshop
- Culture: France, Metz
- Type: Manuscript
- Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
- Dimensions: Each leaf: 16.1 x 12.6 cm (6 5/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
- Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
- Department: Medieval Art
- Accession number: 2001.75
A detail from the museum
The popularity of books of hours lasted until around the 1550s, when the German priest Martin Luther, in his attempts to reform the Catholic Church, declared them full of “un-Christian tomfoolery,” and they fell out of favor.
Collection credit
The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection
Further reading listed by the museum
- Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc. Printed Books and Manuscripts Including an Important Manuscript Map of Southeastern North America, 1721. 1978.
- 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.
Sources
More in Lifestyle
Keep reading
