The Hours of Isabella Stuart

Prayers to the three Persons of the Trinity

Texts and Images

Each of these prayers is illustrated with a pair of small miniatures – one within the main text and one in the margin – showing the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit. Among the marginal miniatures is an image of a woman in black, the manuscript’s patron. She is painted beside an image of Christ at the Last Judgment which introduces a prayer entitled ‘Antiphons to be said for oneself.’

This is the third image of the woman in black, most probably Yolande of Aragon who was widowed in 1417. She kneels at a prayer desk with an open book (presumably this manuscript) and looks across to the image of Christ that illustrates her prayer – ‘a prayer for oneself’, according to the rubric. Seated on a rainbow at the Last Judgement, Christ extends his hand to the woman, an eloquent gesture promising salvation at the end of her book and at the end of time.