MINIATURIST, Netherlandish
(active 1430s in Utrecht)

Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves

1434-40
Manuscript (M. 917 and 945), 192 x 130 mm
The Morgan Library and Museum, New York

The prayers of supplication from the Matins part of the manuscript are illustrated with pictures of the saints, including Sts Cornelius and Cyprian on folio 247r. The square, fleshy heads with their ruddy cheeks are typical of the miniaturist's figurative style. The border surrounding this picture and the text written below it is bizarrely decorated with fish creels and bird cages. The highly original, humorous artist was fond of using such decorative devices, which here have nothing to do with the principal image, but are, in part, simply the artist's own invention.




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