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).

Suffrages of the Saints
Saint John the Evangelist, Folio 159r

The youthful, fair-haired evangelist holds a chalice and a scroll. A snake coils out of the chalice, a reference to a legend that the saint demonstrated the power of God by surviving a drink of poison. The scroll refers to his writings: a Gospel, Epistles, and the Apocalypse.