Fig. 38 illustrates one of the miniatures in the Grimani _Breviary_; it is one of the lovely series representing the characteristic occupations of the twelve months in the Kalendar, which commonly occur as small pictures at the tops of pages in manuscript Kalendars of the fifteenth century, but in this exceptionally magnificent book are full page miniatures. The one copied in fig. 38 represents the month of April, a time for love-making and out-door parties of pleasure; here illustrated by a most beautiful and dignified group of ladies and gentlemen, enlivened by the humour of the scene in the left-hand corner, with a little dog barking jealously at another pet dog which is being petted on a lady's lap. [Illustration: Fig. 38. Miniature symbolizing the month of April from the Kalendar of the Grimani _Breviary_, executed about 1496.] The background, with trees and Cathedral spires like those of Antwerp or Malines, is specially beautiful and highly finished. Though marvels of minute and beautiful workmanship these late Teutonic manuscripts belong to a period of decadence. As has already been remarked, neither in poetic feeling nor in decorative value do they approach the masterpieces of French art during the fourteenth century. _Horae of King René._ Fig. 39 shows a page from a _Book of Hours_ (Paris, _Bibl. Nat. Lat._ 10, 532) which was illuminated for King René II. of Lorraine (1473 to 1508). The figure of the Virgin shows the influence of Italian art, which about this time, 1490, was largely modifying and adding grace to the paintings of Flanders. The border, with lupines or vetch-plant realistically painted on a gold ground, is a good typical specimen of the style. _Horae of Anne of Brittany._ The famous _Prayer-book of Anne of Brittany_, painted about 1500, after her second marriage to Louis XII., is a work of the same magnificent style, with an immense variety of the most exquisitely painted fruits and flowers treated with the most minute realism. It is now in the Paris library[167]. Fig. 40 gives a page from a magnificent _Book of Hours_ in the Imperial Library of Vienna (no. 1857); the miniatures in which are of the finest Teutonic type, in some cases suggesting the school of Van der Weyden, and in others that of Hans Memlinc. The conventional scroll-work of foliage with long serrated leaves in the border is very characteristic of the German and Dutch manuscripts of the fifteenth century. [Illustration: Fig. 39. A page from the _Book of Hours_ of King René, painted about 1480.] [Illustration: Fig. 40. A page from a _Book of Hours_ at Vienna, of the finest Flemish style.] _Technical methods._