Corpses in an Open Grave, by Limbourg Brothers (1405, c.)

Picture58.jpg

Title

Corpses in an Open Grave, by Limbourg Brothers (1405, c.)

Description

"This mysterious cemetery scene accompanies the section of the Belles Heures known as the Office of the Dead, a standard feature of a book of hours. By praying the Office of the Dead on a daily basis, the living commemorated departed loved ones and sought to help them enter heaven more quickly. The text's value was heightened by the ubiquity of death in the Middle Ages, when disease, warfare, poor health care, and tremendously high infant mortality rates led to shorter lives. In this illumination, a prophet emerges from behind the pink crucifix and points to the bodies in the grave. The corpses appear to not yet be buried, but they have decomposed nonetheless. Two men read or pray by the graveside. The meaning of the scene is unclear. Do the two corpses perhaps allude to the duke and his wife, thus reminding them of human frailty and their own mortality?" (Description from The J. Paul Getty Museum webpage,
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/belles_heures/, Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200320191532/http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/belles_heures/)

Creator

Limbourg Brothers (c. 1385-1416)

Source

Illustration in the book The Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry ("The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry") by Limbourg Brothers (1405, c.), 54.1.1, fol. 99. In the Condé Museum, Chantilly, France.

Found in The J. Paul Getty Museum webpage:
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/belles_heures/

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200320191532/http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/belles_heures/

Also found in El Hurgador webpage, Image (4).
http://elhurgador.blogspot.com/2017/09/arte-y-humor-xi-anexo-annex.html

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200316231128/http://elhurgador.blogspot.com/2017/09/arte-y-humor-xi-anexo-annex.html

Date

1405, c.

Format

Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum.
Dimensions: 23.8 × 17 cm

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