An unusual miniature from a Flemish Book of Hours, depicting the Christ Child seated on a cushion in a garden, holding his hand up in blessing and in the other holding the globus cruciger. He is surrounded by fluttering scrolls, all containing text from the Bible referring to the Holy Name: from left, ‘Quicumque invocaverit nomen domini salvus erit’ (cf. Romans 10:13); ‘Quodcumque pecieritis patrem in nomine meo dabit vobis’ (cf. John 16:23); ‘Ihesus quod vocatum est ab angelo priusquam in utero conciperetur’ (cf. Luke 2:21); and ‘Nomen est aliud sub celo in quo oporteat salvos fieri’ (cf. Acts 4:12). The scroll at the top, smudged with some loss, ends ‘nomen domini’.
This miniature would have faced a popular prayer to the Holy Name, ‘O bone Jesu, o dulcissime Jesu’ often found in Books of Hours; comparable miniatures would sometimes also contain the instruments of the Passion, surrounding the Infant Christ (see, for example, the Da Costa Hours, illuminated by Simon Bening; Ghent, c.1515, MS M.399).
The ‘strewn’ floral border is typical of Flemish illumination in this period: ‘By the mid 1480s, if not earlier, the new types of spatial borders - especially those with “strewn” flora and acanthus, luscious textures, and occasional illusionism - were a feature of nearly all Flemish illuminated manuscripts, not only books of hours and prayer books but liturgical and vernacular texts too’ (McKendrick, p.124). Banderoles with biblical inscriptions are found throughout Flemish illumination and more broadly in manuscript illumination and painting to indicate conversation or speech - as frequently employed in depictions of the Annunciation, for example - but also as here, for biblical inscriptions and verse. The use of lavish gold banderoles as here might indicate the influence of the work of the Master of Edward IV (fl. 1470-1500; see T. Kren & S. McKendrick, *Illuminating the Renaissance: the triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (*Getty, 2003), p.337).
