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).

Prayer to the Trinity
The Trinity; The Duchess in Prayer, Folio 91v

Rather than a representation of the Trinity as father, son, and dove, the depiction of God the Father three times stresses the unity of God, as in the French prayer on the page. In the lower miniature, the duchess, Jeanne de Boulogne, the second wife of Jean de Berry, looks up to the Trinity as she kneels before an open book at her prie-dieu.