3-041-811 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Fly, Caterpillar, Pear, and Centipede; Mira calligraphiae monumenta, 1561-1562; illumination added 1591-1596. Additional Info: Georg Bocskay, one of the greatest scribes of the 1500s, included a variety of texts in different languages in his 'Model Book of Calligraphy'. The texts are incidental to the calligraphy, which is conceived for its beauty and originality and as a display of virtuosity. On this page Bocskay presented a Latin prayer, beginning Deus (God), employing an elaborate angular script, gold filler for the last line, and ornate flourishes above and below the text. Thirty years later, when illuminator Joris Hoefnagel painted the blank space left at the bottom of the page, he carefully coordinated his image with the script already on the page. Hoefnagel painted a pear, caterpillar, centipede, and hover fly in colors that harmonize with those of the text.