The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 8, 2026

Black ink and tempera on vertically oriented vellum features a rectangular block containing two sections. On our right, a column of black Latin script begins "gabrielẽ archangelũ". To its left, a vertical gold border is decorated with white, blue, and pink tempera flowers. A white butterfly with black spots rests on the large blossom at the base. This composition is centered within wide, cream-colored margins.

Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain: Fol. 258v

c. 1500

Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximillian

(Flemish, c. 1444–1519)

and Associates

Flanders, Ghent and Bruges, late 15th century
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Codex: 22.5 x 15.2 cm (8 7/8 x 6 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1963.256.258.b
Location: 110B Late Gothic(not visible)

Description

This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies. This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
  • c.1500-
    Unidentified first owner? (c. 1500)
    Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Castile
    Baron Edmond de Rothschild (Late 1800s till 1934)
    1934-1954
    Baron Maurice de Rothschild
    1954-1963
    (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, NY), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1963-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Oh
  • {{cite web|title=Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain: Fol. 258v|url=false|author=Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximillian, Associates|year=c. 1500|access-date=08 June 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.256.258.b