Hours of the Virgin, fol. 129v

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. 129v
Description: 

Virgin Mary: Annunciation―Within a room, a crowned Archangel Gabriel holding a scepter in his left hand raises his right hand, pointing upward. He kneels on the steps of an architectural setting that suggests a private chapel, in which the Virgin Mary kneels at prie-dieu, her right hand on an open book. The Dove of the Holy Ghost appears above her head amid rays of light and an aureole. An archway in the far wall of the room leads to a bedroom furnished with a bed and a chair. The scene is framed by a border decorated with flowers, including dianthus, a lily, and a rose, and inhabited by a caterpillar and butterflies.

Credits: 

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