Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
Belgium, Tournai, 1450-1460
MS M.78 fol. 122v

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Scene, Liturgical: Obsequies -- Priest, tonsured, wearing vestment decorated with stars, with joined hands raised, standing on platform before altar on which is open book with pseudo-inscriptions beside chalice draped with cloth; above the altar is retable with scene of Christ: Crucifixion, flanked by figures (partly visible). To right, emerging from behind curtain, youthful tonsured cleric, with right hand pushing back the drapery and with left hand raising lit tapered candle, stands beside group of three tonsured clerics, surrounding lectern on which is open book, possibly chanting, all before bier draped with cross-inscribed cloth, and flanked by two candles, one candlestick visible. In foreground, at right, three hooded mourners, facing backwards, seated on long bench. Scene in church room with arched windows, wooden ceiling, and tiled floor. Margins decorated with foliate and floreate ornament. Miniature at beginning of the Office of the Dead.