3-040-411 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Initial D: Christ before Caiaphas; Initial D: The Virgin Mary with Apostles; Ruskin Hours, about 1300. Additional Info:A historiated initial D opens the service of Prime in the Hours of the Holy Spirit with a line taken from Psalm 69, 'Deus in adiutorium meum intende' (God, come to my assistance). A series of historiated initials focusing on Christ's Passion accompanies this cycle of prayers. Inside the initial D is the scene of Christ before Caiaphas, when the Jewish high priest tries Jesus for the crime of blasphemy. A knight kneels in the right margin of the page, clasping his hands and looking up at the scene. The man is probably the book's original owner. The page as a whole thus depicts an ideal of late medieval devotion: praying intently, the patron becomes a witness to the events of the Passion.