Morganmobile: Threes
According to pious legend, Saint Nicholas provided dowries for three impoverished girls, saved three innocent men from execution, and, as seen here, resurrected three schoolboys. The boys had taken shelter with a wicked innkeeper, who murdered them, chopped them into pieces, and pickled their tender flesh. Prompted by a vision, Nicholas exposed the crime. He visited the inn and ordered a portion of cured meat. Standing before the vat, he made the sign of the cross, causing the fully restored trio to emerge.
Book of Hours, France, Paris, ca. 1460, MS M.282, fol. 133v. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1907.