Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

MS M.50, Fol. 4v-5

Jean Poyer

The Apostle Philip and the Prophet Amos
The Apostle Bartholomew and the Prophet Malachi

ca. 1492–95

Prayer Book of Anne de Bretagne
Illuminated by Jean Poyer

126 x 80 mm
MS M.50 (fol. 4v–5r)

The Pierpont Morgan Library, Purchased in 1905

The Apostle Philip and the Prophet Amos (fol. 4v, left)

Holding the tau T-shaped cross upon which he was bound and stoned to death and with which he revived a dead boy, Philip encounters Amos above the sixth Article of Faith from the Apostles' Creed, which appropriately discusses Christ's resurrection.

The same cross that Poyer depicts as Philip's attribute also refers to the one by which Philip banished a serpent that people were worshiping in Scythia, where the Apostle had brought the Gospel. The angry priests of the serpents martyred Philip upon that cross.

The Apostle Bartholomew and the Prophet Malachi (fol. 5, right)

While looking at the book of the New Testament in Bartholomew's hand, Malachi unfurls a scroll as the figures appear to contemplate each other's words.

The curved knife in Bartholomew's hand refers to the instrument used by barbarians in India and Greater Armenia— where the Apostle preached the Gospel—to slice and remove his skin.