The Visitation: Leaf from a Book of Hours (5 of 6 Excised Leaves) (c. 1420): Art, History and Details

The Visitation: Leaf from a Book of Hours (5 of 6 Excised Leaves) (c. 1420) 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 Visitation: Leaf from a Book of Hours (5 of 6 Excised Leaves)
• Date: c. 1420
• Creator attribution: Henri d'Orquevaulx (French); Workshop
• Culture: France
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Each leaf: 16.1 x 12.5 cm (6 5/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2003.172

A detail from the museum

Originally used solely by the ordained, by the 1000s, these prayers had spread to the general population through their inclusion in books of hours.

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.