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The Sforza Hours was commissioned around 1490 by Bona Sforza, the widow of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan. It is a Book of Hours according to the use of Rome, containing prayers and devotional texts for the private use and edification of the laity. The miniatures contributed by Giovanni Pietro Birago and belonging the oldest and most comprehensive portion of the manuscript bear testimony to the most up-to-date Renaissance ideas.
After the death of Bona Sforza, the codex entered the possession of the Habsburg princess Margaret of Austria, regent of the Spanish Netherlands. She asked her court miniaturist Gerard Horenbout to illuminate the unfinished part of the prayer book that had remained blank. This might have happened between 1517 and 1521. Horenbout miniatures greatly differed in style from those of his Italian predecessor.
Wearing the hat and furred vestments of a citizen of Ghent, St Mark the Evangelist appears in profile on the open double page of the manuscript (folios 10v and 11r), seated at a lectern and attending to his pious activity. The Renaissance hall is depicted with richly decorated blue columns, covered with ornamentation after the latest Italian style. The scene - painted by Gerard Horenbout - conveys perspective depth and gives way to a city veduta.
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