The Hours of Isabella Stuart

Hours of the Virgin and scenes from the Apocalypse

Texts and Images

The Hours of the Virgin, the core text in Books of Hours, received a large miniature for each of its eight canonical hours of prayer. The miniatures show events in the Virgin’s life. Every page has a marginal miniature from the cycle illustrating the Apocalypse.

Like the Annunciation (fol. 29r) and the Adoration of the Child (fol. 65r), this miniature received a spatially ambitious setting, using single-point perspective to create a sense of receding depth. The marginal scene illustrates the Apocalypse cycle. The arms of Isabella Stuart have been added within the initial.