Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
England, probably Oxford, ca. 1325-1330
MS M.700 fol. 4r

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Christ: Last Judgment -- Christ, scalloped crossed nimbus, wearing crown of thorns, wearing partly draped mantle, shows bleeding wounds in hands, side, and feet, raises right hand in blessing, lifts left hand, and sits on bench above multifoiled arc of heaven in which are crescent moon and sun, all within barbed sexfoil mandorla enclosing gold diapered background.
He is surrounded by four nimbed angels, two holding Instruments of the Passion (cross, crown of thorns, three nails, spear, and scourge), and two sounding trumpets, above the dead, including pope wearing tiara, two bishops wearing miters, king, queen, seven women wearing veils, and man wearing hat, most with joined hands raised, all rising from cross-inscribed sarcophagi.
Figures against diapered background.
Frames, decorated with geometric ornament of x's and with sprigs of three pointed trefoliate leaves, include barbed quatrefoils enclosing busts of two crowned kings at center of top and bottom, busts of two veiled crowned queens at center of sides, and enclosing four heraldic escutcheons at corners, representing du Bois (argent, two bars and a canton gules).