The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 13, 2025
Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Fishing (verso)
c. 1500–1510
Each leaf: 18.1 x 12.9 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/16 in.)
The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2006.13.b
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
The ape and the wild boar symbolized vice in general and lust in particular during the Middle Ages.Description
This leaf shows the second half of Psalm 142. The page’s first line reads, “Non avertas faciem tuam a me,” or “Turn not away thy face from me.” This last page of the penitential psalms immediately precedes the litany of saints, which begins on the other side of this leaf. Below the text stands an ape fishing at a small pond across from a large bird, a scene possibly from a fable or simply meant to be amusing or diversionary.- [Sotheby's, London, 3 July 1984, lot 127][Graton and Graton, Evanston, Ill.]-2006Ms. Jeanne Miles Blackburn, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art2006-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 63, cat. no. 61 archive.org
- The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).
- {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Book of Hours: Ape Fishing (verso)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1500–1510|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2006.13.b