Ruskin Hours
The Ruskin Hours is an illuminated devotional manuscript, made anonymously around 1300, probably in England, for a lay reader with a book of hours. The picture shows two small grey figures in red and blue tunics facing each other across a gold-banded divider, set among blue and red acanthus-like foliage with a dense flourished border. A designer could take the crisp contrast of ochre, blue and red on parchment, and the way text lines and marginal foliage frame a narrow scene.
