The Visitation, from a Book of Hours

Prints and Drawings

1440/45

Workshop of the Master of the Privileges of Ghent and Flanders
Flanders (Ghent or Tournai)

Books of Hours were the most popular book of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; more of them were produced from c. 1250–1550 than any other type of book, devotional or otherwise. This example has been attributed to the workshop of the prolific Master of the Ghent Privileges, and characteristically ornaments a sequence of prayers and devotional reading to be recited at precisely set times of the day and night. Images such as this tender scene of the encounter between the Virgin and her cousin Saint Elizabeth, both miraculously with child, helped introduce the different segments of the Hours of the Virgin, the core section of all Books of Hours.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Master of the Privileges of Ghent and Flanders
Title: The Visitation, from a Book of Hours
Place: Flanders (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1440–1445
Medium: Manuscript with 230 folios, 12 full-page miniatures and other decorations in gold leaf, tempera and colored inks, and littera textualis inscriptions in Latin and French in dark black ink, ruled in red with red rubrics, on parchment, with two parchment fly leaves upper cover, three parchment fly leaves lower cover, sheets with gilded edges, in modern binding of brown morocco leather over wooden boards
Dimensions: Book: 19 × 13.5 cm (7 1/2 × 5 3/8 in.); Sheets: 11.5 × 10 cm (4 9/16 × 3 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Anonymous gift
Reference Number: 1915.538
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/71519/manifest.json

Seymour De Ricci, with the assistance of W. J. Wilson, Census of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), v. I, p. 515.
Gregory T. Clark, Made in Flanders: The Master of the Ghent Privileges and Manuscript Painting in the Southern Netherlands in the Time of Philip the Good (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), pp. 23-24.
Christina M. Nielsen, “ ‘To Step into another World’: Building a Medieval Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 30, 2 (2004), p. 11.

Milwaukee Art Museum, “Illuminations: Medieval and Renaissance Books and Manuscripts,” October 17–December 29, 1985.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Library, “From Scroll to Codex,” November 20, 2000-January 15, 2001.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Devotion and Splendor: Medieval Art at The Art Institute of Chicago,” September 25, 2004-January 2, 2005, p. 47, cat. 49 (ill.).

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.