Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
France, probably Besançon, ca. 1430
MS M.293 fol. 42v

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Christ: Nativity -- Nude Christ Child, rayed crossed nimbus, raising right hand in blessing, resting left hand on knee, reclines with head on pillow on mattress on bed covering. Virgin Mary, nimbed, with joined hands raised, kneels looking down at Him next to draped canopied bed. Two angels are behind Mary, one nimbed, holding hem of her cloak. Joseph, wearing hood, with joined hands is on other side of the bed looking upward toward hole in roof through which rays descend to Christ Child from bust of God, rayed nimbus, in rayed arc of Heaven.
Scene in open shed with thatched roof; three angels on canopy of bed; ass and ox behind wattle fence in background.
Margins decorated with border of foliate rinceaux, and foliate and floreate ornament.