MS M.399, fol. 318v

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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. 318v
Description: 

Among a group of confessors are: Gregory the Great, wearing a cross-surmounted. triple-crowned tiara and vestments inscribed with pseudo-inscriptions, raising his gloved right hand in a blessing and holding a papal cross in left hand; Jerome, wearing a cardinal's hat and vestments; Anthony of Padua, wearing a Franciscan habit, supporting himself with staff held in his right hand, and holding an open book and a bell in his left hand; two monks, one wearing a black habit and the other a white habit; and Augustine of Hippo, wearing a bishop's miter and vestment, raising his right hand in a blessing, and holding a crozier in his left hand. All figures are nimbed.
The scene is framed by an illusionistic wood frame. In the lower border inscribed in display script is DEVS OVI OM(NIA) SANTORVM (sic) CONFESSORVM.

Credits: 

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