All Saints and the Wound of Christ, two small miniatures on a leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin [France (Paris), c.1500-10]

single leaf, 180x110mm, vellum, recto with a small miniature for the suffrage to All Saints and verso with a small column-wide miniature for the prayer ‘Benedictio dei patris omnipotentis…’, both sides with fine panel borders, 18 lines, 98x50m, leaf with wide margins, edges yellowed from framing

The veneration of Christ’s Five Wounds (the hands, feet, and side) was widespread in late medieval Europe, and the motif of the side wound enjoyed its own cult. The horizontal depiction of the wound was popular in printed Books of Hours and late medieval manuscripts (see I. Delaunay, Echanges artistiques entre livres d'heures manuscrits et imprimés produits à Paris, 3 vols, Ph.D. thesis, Paris, 2000, pls.xxvii-xxix). In these images, the wound appears encased in reliquaries or held in chalices; the present depiction is unusual for the fact that it is shown free-floating in the sky, with blood pouring down like rain. The fine execution of the leaf is accentuated by the tall and narrow layout of the text with very wide margins.