
Following the Hours of the Passion, a chronological
series of masses devoted to the year's most important
celebrations completes the manuscript.
First comes the Christmas Mass, one of the three masses known
as "the mass of the day." The subject is indicated by
the Nativity painted within the initial letter and by
the lines following, which begin the Introit taken
from Isaiah IX: 6: "Puer natus est nobis..." ("For a
child is born to us, and a son is given to us").
The mass here is noteworthy only for the picturesque details of the officiants and the congregation, and it must be classed among the less important
works executed by Jean Colombe's assistants, including Pentecost (folio 79r), the Funeral of Raymond Diocrès (folio 86v), and the Holy Sacrament (folio 129v).
The thin columns of the choir, the slender golden
statues between the stained-glass windows, and the
vaults suggest that the Limbourgs designed the architecture. Jean Colombe then worked over it, as indicated by the small angel, typical of his style, painted
on the keystone, and by the Savoie family's gules escutcheon with a silver cross.
At the altar the officiant stands reading the
Gospel, aided by a deacon and a subdeacon; two
priests kneel in the stalls. On the right, the head choir
has gathered around a lectern to sing the office, while
in the foreground two women, one wearing a hennin,
the other a simpler headdress, follow the service in
their books.
Above them rises an organ whose show pipes are visible, and at the top of the choir three angels before the stained-glass windows join the Christmas celebration.
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