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The artist of this book of hours is known as the Chief Associate of Maître
François or sometimes as the Master of Jacques de Besançon. Large numbers of
works are attributed to his hand, in particular books of hours. He painted these
with unvarying competence but also with constancy in his choice of subject
matter and arrangement: the same compositions are repeated again and again. Here
on ff. 194v-195 we see his usual martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria: the
wheel on which she would have been tormented stands ruined behind her, and the
frustrated executioner has finally opted for beheading. On the facing page, a
somewhat less frequent scene shows dainty Genevieve picking her way along a
country path; as a tiny devil with large bellows attempts to extinguish the
flame of her taper, an angel constantly relights it.
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