Leaf from a Book of Hours: Saint James the Greater

c. 1440–1450

Master of the Gold Scrolls

(Belgian)

Culture

Flanders, Bruges

Medium

ink, tempera and gold on vellum

Measurements

Leaf: 14.9 x 11.2 cm (5 7/8 x 4 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2011.59

You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Location

Not on view

Description

The illuminator of this leaf is one of a group of painters and workshops collectively known as the "Masters of the Gold Scrolls," named after the gold tendrils that frequently, but not always, occupy the backgrounds of the group’s compositions. The present miniature is by one of the Gold Scrolls’ finest hands. From the 1440s onward, the gold scroll motif begins to disappear in their miniatures and replaced, as here, by landscape. Saint James the Greater is shown as a Christian pilgrim. The miniature would have appeared in the Suffrages of the book of hours.