Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Visitation

Guillaume Vrelant · c. 1470–1480
The Cleveland Museum of Art

A tiny leaf, barely 10 cm tall, from a book of hours painted in Bruges about 1470–1480 by Guillaume Vrelant. It is painted mostly in grisaille — shades of grey — with touches of gold.

Elizabeth and Mary meet in a street of Gothic houses and clasp hands. The grey tones make the figures look almost like carved stone.

From the text

Mary enters the home of Zechariah (Luke 1:40)

Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting (Luke 1:41)

The artist’s own

A Flemish street with Gothic arches

Grisaille, a fashion in Flanders at the time

Details

Elizabeth

The older woman in a hood.

Mary

She stands with long hair and a halo.

Hands

They clasp hands.

The houses

Gothic arches and towers in grey.

Guillaume Vrelant (Flemish, c. 1454–1481). The Cleveland Museum of Art (Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1954.140.3) · tempera, liquid gold, and grisaille on vellum · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

The verses

Luke 1:39–45In those days Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah, where she entered the home of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word to her will be fulfilled.”