Annunciation to the Shepherds: Leaf from a Book of Hours (1 of 6 Excised Leaves)
Henri d'Orquevaulx (French)
or Workshop
c. 1420–30
- Medium
- ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
- Classification
- Manuscript
- Dimensions
- Each leaf: 16.1 x 12.4 cm (6 5/16 x 4 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- France, Metz
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Medieval Art
- Credit line
- The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This leaf survives from what must have been an extraordinarily rich book of hours. The elaborate Passion cycle and Suffrages point to an important patron. Internal evidence within the original calendar and texts indicates that Metz was the probable place of production. Stylistically, the illuminations appear to come from the workshop of Henri d’Orquevaulx, a documented Metz manuscript painter. Compositionally, structurally, and stylistically, the miniatures suggest strong links to Netherlandish illumination. It is not known whether d’Orquevaulx came originally from the Netherlands or whether he simply worked or trained there at some point in his career.
