
ca. 1515
Da Costa hours
Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)
Ghent, Belgium
172 x 125 mm
MS M.399, fol. 279v
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), 1910
Catalog link
Apostle James, wearing a pilgrim's purse and a pilgrim's hat inscribed with two shells flanking two crossed staffs, supports himself with a staff held in his left hand on top of which he places a book with two clasps. He stands within a landscape with buildings enclosed in a fence. A man with a backpack walks up the path toward the summit of a rocky hill.
The scene is framed by a border decorated with leafless vines intertwining to form roundels, which contain jeweled pendants.