Leaf from a Book of Hours: Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man (Prefatory Miniature to the Office of the Virgin) (recto) and Text with Illustrated Border (verso) (1 of 3 Excised Leaves)

Description

This leaf came from a highly customized and lavish book of hours made in Rouen, a major center for book production at the time. Intended for a female patron, the book, of which the museum owns three leaves, contained numerous illuminations. Shown here are Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, just before disobeying God by eating fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, considered the first sin in Christianity. This precedes the Hours of the Virgin’s traditional first scene of the Annunciation. Its inclusion emphasizes a need for redemption through recitation of the subsequent prayers.

Provenance

Carlton R. Richmond; [Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 30 October 1981, lot 54] (October 30, 1981); [Bruce Ferrini, Akron, OH, sold to Jeanne Miles Blackburn] (1981-); Jeanne Miles Blackburn, Maitland, FL, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art (-2001); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2001-)

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man (Prefatory Miniature to the Office of the Virgin) (recto) and Text with Illustrated Border (verso) (1 of 3 Excised Leaves)

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c. 1510

Accession Number

2001.79

Medium

ink, tempera, and liquid gold on vellum

Dimensions

Each leaf: 17.9 x 12.8 cm (7 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.)

Classification

Manuscript

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection