The Art of Illumination

Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum; 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1).

Hours of the Passion
Entombment, Folio 152r

The quiet grief of the Virgin is contrasted with the wild hair-pulling despair of Mary Magdalen behind her. Near Christ’s head one of the holy women holds the crown of thorns, which was an important royal relic housed in Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris, when the Belles Heures manuscript was made.