Leaf Excised from a Book of Hours: The Nativity

Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximillian, c. 1480

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Artist: Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximillian (Flemish, 1444–1519)
Medium: Ink, tempera and liquid gold on vellum
Size: Leaf: 10.8 x 8.2 cm (4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)
Culture: Flanders, Ghent, 15th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

This book, made by an artist of the Ghent-Bruges school of illumination, represents the culmination of Flemish book painting. Its main features were the use of rich colors, decorative and illusionistic effects, a love of landscape, and a strong sense of visual narrative. Its most distinctive innovation was the development of a new style of border decoration featuring realistic motifs which cast shadows onto colored grounds to create an effect of spaciousness. These motifs included a diverse assortment of flowers, butterflies, insects, birds, and sprays of acanthus foliage.