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).

Diocrès, Bruno, and Carthusians
The Burial of Diocrès, Folio 95r

As he is lowered into his grave, Diocrès cries out again in this complex scene with four distinct groups of attendants: monks and acolytes emerging from a portal, chanting in procession on the left; mourners in black in a clutch at center; scholars and clerics on the right; and five workmen revolving around the corpse, busy in their task of lowering the coffin into the grave. Colorful tomb slabs litter the ground in the deep space behind the figures.