Infant Christ Sent to Earth
ca. 1440
The Netherlands, Utrecht
MS M.917/945, ff. 84v–85r
Purchased on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund with the assistance of the Fellows and with special assistance of Mrs. Frederick B. Adams, Sr., Mrs. Robert Charles, Mr. Laurens M. Hamilton, The Heineman Foundation, Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mrs. Jacob M. Kaplan
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Salvation has begun. God the Father dispatches his Son to earth, trailed by the Dove of the Holy Spirit. Christ is depicted as a human baby, albeit one shouldering the Cross upon which he will die. The earth is devoid of people; no one welcomes the future Savior. Below, in the border, a man catches fish in traps that symbolize the corporeal imprisonment of the soul.