Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead: Two Devils (verso)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
As a time-saving device, illuminators in the 1450s and later would often paint identical borders on both sides of a leaf. The motifs would be drawn on one side and then traced on the other by holding the leaf against a window. Both sides of this leaf are therefore mirror images, containing elaborate floral borders, gold-leaf ivy vines, sprays of flowers or fruit, and a grotesque, in this case a bird with the head of a man. Also included is a roundel featuring two devils. This leaf is from a dismantled manuscript that included numerous painted roundels relating to the lives of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the more obscure Saint Alexis.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionSimilar works
Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead: Angel Chasing a Devil (recto)
Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead Opening Prayers (recto)
Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead: Angel Chasing a Devil (recto) and Two Devils (verso)
Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead with Psalm 5 (verso)
Leaf from an illuminated manuscript
Book of Hours (Use of Rouen): fol. 145r