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Leaf from a Book of Hours: Initial D: Massacre of the Innocents (1 of 2 Excised Leaves)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Books of Hours were Christian devotional books with texts, prayers and psalms for Christian devotion which were written primarily for laymen. They were popular in circles of the rich, educated nobility. Just like this leaf, which was probably made in France at the beginning of the 14th century, the pages of the Books of Hours often show elaborate decoration to invite the reader to take a closer look. After the great plague, individual piety flourished and the Book of Hours also experienced its heyday, especially in France and Flanders.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineLeaf from a Book of Hours: Initial D: Massacre of the Innocents (1 of 2 Excised Leaves), c. 1300–1330. Northeastern France or Flanders. Ink, tempera and gold on vellum; each leaf: 13 x 9.7 cm (5 1/8 x 3 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection, 1999.126
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