Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

302. MS M.399, fol. 151v

ca. 1515

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

Ghent, Belgium
172 x 125 mm
MS M.399, fol. 151v

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

Christ: Nativity―A ray of light from a star, visible through a hole in the wall of a stable, falls on the naked Christ Child on the ground amid rays of light. He is flanked by a nimbed and veiled Virgin Mary and Joseph the Carpenter, both kneeling with joined hands raised. Two kneeling angels look on. Behind the Virgin Mary, an ox and an ass standing beside a hayrack turn their heads toward a group of figures. The scene is within an illusionistic wood frame.