MS M.399, fol. 2v

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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. 2v
Description: 

Occupation of the month: January―Two men, a woman, and a youth are in a room furnished with a table, chairs, a chandelier, and a birdcage affixed to the wall above the fireplace. A kitchen is visible through a door in the far wall. One of the men wears fur-lined garments. He is seated before a fireplace with his shoes removed and is warming himself, holding his hands and feet toward the fire. The youth kneels on the ground beside him, and a cat is next to the youth. Behind the man, the second man is seated at a table with vessels and a candle. He holds a bowl, and the woman serves him a platter of meat. A woman tends the fire.
The scene is within an illusionistic wood frame.

Credits: 

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