Libro de horas de Leonor de la Vega

This parchment manuscript from the second half of the 15th century, written in Flemish, is one of the richest examples today of the Books of hours and their illuminations style and technique. These works of devotion widespread among 15th century laymen, particularly in France and the Netherlands, as luxury objects, commissioned by noblemen and princes and later by the well-off bourgeois. They were produced almost industrially in Flemish and Parisian workshops at the end of the century. According to Durrieu, the paintings of this codex are by the Flemish master Guillermo Vrelant, more craftsman than artist, who worked in Flanders around 1465-1470. His technique, with a very marked drawing style, reproduces figures and objects in relief, a consequence of the meticulous preparation of the parchment. The borders, with abundant decoration of flowers, fruit, birds, insects, figurines with weapons or musical instruments, and small monsters, as well as other compositions are typical of this master. It has a calendar with no miniatures, the hours of the Cross, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin… This is the most important part which gives these books their name and is usually the most richly ornamented and the part that shows a more significant, elaborate decoration. There are in this book full-page scenes representing the following: The Blessing Christ (p. 15v.); The Holy Trinity and portraits of the first owners of the codex (p. 25v); The Nativity (p. 78v); The Coronation of the Virgin (p. 111v), etc. and smaller scenes in elaborate capitals and initials: The arrest of Christ (p. 17); Adam and Eve in Paradise (p. 27); Saint Mark (p. 50); or Saint Barbara (p. 196).