Willem Vrelant was the pre-eminent illuminator working in Bruges in the third quarter of the fifteenth century, and his workshop supplied Books of Hours to an aristocratic and mercantile clientele that included members of the Order of the Golden Fleece. His style is recognizable by its semi-grisaille palette infused by deep blues and crimsons, by the articulation of interior spaces using strong diagonal recession, and by the treatment of drapery in broad, somewhat angular folds that differ from the more delicate linearity of his Ghent contemporaries. The pages shown here concern the Annunciation, with Gabriel’s startling announcement presented via a scroll issuing from his mouth: Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
