Hours of the Virgin
Texts and Images
Each of the eight Hours of the Virgin, recited daily at the canonical times for prayer, opens with a large miniature depicting an event in the Virgin’s life. The eight miniatures are accompanied by fully illuminated ornamental initials and secular scenes in the lower borders.
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Coronation of the Virgin with bas-de-page scene of a man attacking a lion (Hours of the Virgin, Compline)
This page was illuminated by the Master of the Grandes Heures. A pentimento is apparent in the bas-de-page image of a man attacking a lion (hotspot 1). The man was originally supplied with a sling, suggesting that a model of David and Goliath might have been used for the sketch. The sling was then replaced with a club, perhaps judged to be more effective in an encounter with a lion that was unlikely to attract God’s protection, or considered a more accurate representation of a famous myth, if the scene was intended to show Hercules approaching the Nemean lion.