Prayer book of Stephan Lochner

Dated to the early 1450s, the Book of hours consists of 235 leaves, each folio measuring 108 x 80mm.

[1] The extent of Lochner's involvement is debated; workshop members were probably heavily engaged in its production.

The borders of the Prayer book are ornamented in bright colours and contain acanthus scrolls, gold foliage, flowers, berry-like fruits and round pods.

Art historian Ingo Walther detects Lochner's hand through the "pious intimacy and soulfulness of the figures, always expressed so gently and elegantly, even in the extremely small format of the pictures".

On the contrary, they address several of the concerns articulated in Lochner's paintings and formulate them anew.

Job Derided by his Wife , c 1450
Flight into Egypt , 1451. The Virgin sits on a small donkey. Joseph holds the reins, and is depicted as good humoured, but bearded and rather crude. [ 1 ]