Triptych formed of 20 miniatures from a late-15th century Book of Hours, mounted in a wooden frame

Triptych formed of twenty miniatures from an illuminated Book of Hours on vellum

[Southern Netherlands (Flanders, Ghent?), late 15th century (c.1490), and 19th-century frames]

Twenty leaves, each c. 78-90×95mm, having been cut down to remove the text, set into glazed compartments of a 19th(?)-century wood triptych (530x450mm closed, 898mm wide when open), in most cases the upper part of the leaf is intact but the lower border has been cut off and moved up to meet the bottom edge of the miniature, usually by a simple horizontal cut, but sometimes following the contours of the contents of the border (e.g. no. 5 where the contour is adapted to include the left-most rabbit); the miniatures with varying amounts of wear and pigment-loss.

ILLUMINATION

Most of the figures are shown standing full-length, many in front of a cloth of honour, several are set against a landscape in which a path leads through a wooded area, some with tree-roots emerging from an earth bank. The borders are of great variety; some are standard ‘Ghent-Bruges’ scatter borders, details of others are noted below. Some of the saints are unidentified (their identity would have been clear from the adjacent text, now missing or obscured), and a few scenes are very unusual, such as no. 4.

The subjects are:

Left wing:

(1) St Barbara(?) sitting in a small garden surrounded by a low wall within the courtyard of a grand complex of buildings, reading a book and holding a palm of martyrdom.

(2) St Luke sitting at a desk writing his gospel, accompanied by the winged ox.

(3) A male saint; the border with a hideous demon pushing a wheelbarrow.

(4) The Three Magi looking up at the Star of Bethlehem.

Middle panel:

(5) St Stephen, holding stones in the fold of his dalmatic; the border with a hunter, birds of prey, and rabbits within an enclosure.

(6) St Christopher carrying the child across the river; the border with trompe-l’œuil jewels, pewter pilgrim badges of various shapes, and a ‘sewn-in’ black-faced Veronica image.

(7) A male saint (a composition similar to no. 3); the border with the miracle of the manna falling from heaven and being gathered into baskets.

(8) St Bartholomew holding a knife; the border with men pruning vegetation.

(9) St Anthony Abbot, half length in ‘dramatic close-up’, holding a book and his tau-staff, accompanied by his pig.

(10) St Margaret emerging from the dragon; the border with a scene of two saints in a boat threatened by a dragon.

(11) Two male saints, one beardless; the lower border attached upside-down.

(12) The Mass of St Gregory, with four cardinals and a bishop behind Gregory, the apparition of Christ reaching down to touch his hands.

(13) St Andrew, standing with his Cross; the border with a centaur and a woman looking in a mirror.

(14) St Laurence wearing a fine dalmatic, holding a book and gridiron, in an interior; the border with a flat-billed bird and snails.

(15) Sts Philip and James, holding a cross-topped staff, and a satchel and walking-stick, respectively.

(16) St Sebastian tied to a tree, undressed to the waist, about to be shot by an archer; the border with an infant with a bow and arrow.

Right wing:

(17) St Apollonia, with an open book and pincers with a tooth, sitting in a garden (like no. 1, but in a wooded area).

(18) A male saint standing in a landscape.

(19) St Augustine, enthroned and dressed in full episcopal vestments, holding a heart.

(20) St John the Evangelist, accompanied by his symbol the eagle, sitting on Patmos, writing and witnessing (in the sky) his Revelation; the border with a very large locust and a figure holding a jar.