MS M.399, fol. 8r

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Da Costa hours
Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)

Ghent, Belgium
ca. 1515
172 x 125 mm

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), 1910

MS M.399, fol. 8r
Description: 

A calendar page is shown within an illusionistic wood frame. On the right side of the frame are two statues of male figures within an illusionistic architectural niche. The top one surmounts a column. Along the bottom border is a pastoral landscape. Within the landscape is a crab, the zodiac sign Cancer, enclosed in an illusionistic roundel frame superimposed on the landscape. The crab is within a landscape with a lake or sea. To the right of the frame, a sheep drinks from a stream.

Credits: 

Image courtesy of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz/Austria.