Manuscript miniature with the Annunciation to the Shepherds

This illuminated manuscript leaf on vellum, from a 15th-century French Book of Hours, depicts the biblical episode of the Annunciation to the Shepherds. The miniature illustrates the portion of the Nativity narrative in which an angel appears to a group of shepherds, who are keeping watch over their flock by night (Luke 2:8-20). The text (in Latin) on this leaf is the opening of Terce in the Hours of the Virgin: "Make haste, O God, to deliver me; Make haste to help me, O LORD" (Psalm 70).