MS G.55 fol. 53v

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Hours of Pierre de Bosredont

France, Langres
ca. 1465
157 x 113 mm

Gift of the Trustees of the William S. Glazier Collection, 1984

MS G.55 fol. 53v
Description: 

Christ: Nativity — The Christ Child is nude, nimbed, and lying amid rays on a bed. He is flanked by a nimbed Virgin Mary and Joseph the Carpenter. Christ’s right hand is raised, and both Mary and Joseph have joined hands. Mary is kneeling on the bed, and Joseph is kneeling on the ground with a walking stick hooked over his left arm. Behind them an ass and an ox stand at the manger. Only their heads are visible. The scene is set within a shed. There is a landscape in background, and above, the sun emits rays, some of which shine through a hole in the roof onto the Christ Child.
The margins are decorated with floreate ornament, including a grapevine and a strawberry, and inhabited by a bird and a rabbit. The heraldic shield of Pierre Bosredont (quarterly, vair and gules) is in the lower margin.