Da Costa hours
Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), 1910
A nimbed Evangelist Luke is seated on a recumbent, nimbed symbol (ox). He writes with a pen held in his right hand in an open book on his right knee. He is seated beside a table, on which are a book, a writing tool, and an inkpot, in a bedroom with a canopied bed. Behind him, steps lead up to an open door and another room in back.
Evangelist, Luke: Painting the Virgin Mary―In the back room, which has a lamp, a nimbed Evangelist Luke sits on a chair in front of the Virgin Mary, whom he is painting. He is beside a chest and in front of an easel. The Virgin Mary stands with her hands joined amid rays of light.
The whole scene is framed by a border decorated with pearls and jeweled pendants, including a cross decorated with four pearls and an emerald.
Image courtesy of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz/Austria.