Hours of the Virgin
Texts and Images
Each of the eight Hours of the Virgin, recited daily at the canonical times for prayer, opens with a large miniature depicting an event in the Virgin’s life. The eight miniatures are accompanied by fully illuminated ornamental initials and secular scenes in the lower borders.
Coronation of the Virgin with bas-de-page scene of a man attacking a lion (Hours of the Virgin, Compline)
This page was illuminated by the Master of the Grandes Heures. A pentimento is apparent in the bas-de-page image of a man attacking a lion (hotspot 1). The man was originally supplied with a sling, suggesting that a model of David and Goliath might have been used for the sketch. The sling was then replaced with a club, perhaps judged to be more effective in an encounter with a lion that was unlikely to attract God’s protection, or considered a more accurate representation of a famous myth, if the scene was intended to show Hercules approaching the Nemean lion.