The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 3, 2024

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Sts. Geneviève, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret (recto)

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Sts. Geneviève, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret (recto)

c. 1415

workshop of Boucicaut Master

(French, Paris, active about 1410–25)
Leaf: 16 x 11.2 cm (6 5/16 x 4 7/16 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

This leaf’s illumination includes Saints Geneviève, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret, all early church saints, virgins, and martyrs. During the 1400s and 1500s, the popularity of female saints increased, as did the literacy rate among women, thanks to books of hours. Saint Genevieve is shown with a candle the devil is trying to extinguish while an angel relights it. Saint Catherine, in the center, holds a palm branch and a sword, with which she was executed. Saint Margaret stands on the dragon from whom she emerged clean and unharmed when the cross she carried irritated the dragon’s innards.
  • [Bruce Ferrini, Akron, OH, sold to Jeanne Miles Blackburn]
    -2014
    Jeanne Miles Blackburn
    2014-
    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. 32, cat. no. 24 archive.org
  • The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours (Gallery 115 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).
    Main gallery rotation (Gallery 113): January 26, 2015 -
  • {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Book of Hours: Sts. Geneviève, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret (recto)|url=false|author=Boucicaut Master|year=c. 1415|access-date=03 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2014.21.a