MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - EN31.jpg

Category Woodcut
Origin: artist/workshop Paris; printer Jehan Petit
Date 16C/1
Reference No Res. 2514v, f 1v
Size 19x17.9
Provenance
Present Location
Bibliography Dijon 1953, 65

Will 1981, 121-9; Leroux 1991, 190; Aurenhammer 1959-67, 342; Pearson 2001, 1389-90
Illustration From photo - library
Other illustrations Will 1981, ill 4

Leroux 1991, ill 366; Pearson 2001, ill 12
Country France
Description:
A scene depicting the Virgin with Bernard's family and St Malachy from the beginning of a book of Bernard's Sermons printed in Paris in 1508 by Jehan Petit. A crowned Virgin and Child, carrying a scroll with the words 'Venite ad me omnes', is in the centre, flanked by the figures of Bernard on the left and St Malachy on the right, all three represented as sculptures standing on pillars. Bernard has a crozier in his right hand and a model of the church of Clairvaux in his left. At his feet are the arms of Clairvaux. Malachy is mitred, carries the processional cross of an archbishop in his right hand and an open book in his left. Both he and Bernard are identified by their names. Below Bernard are his five brothers and below Malachy Bernard's parents and behind them his sister Humbeline. The scene is in a landscape with the castle of Fontaine in the background. At the top of the picture is a small figure of Christ in the clouds with rays of grace emanating, each one of which touches the figures below. The same characters in a similar composition are featured in the triptych attributed to Jean Bellegambe (see PA87) and the woodcut was undoubtedly the model for a painting from the German Cistercian nunnery of Lichtenthal dated 1534 in which The Virgin flanked by Bernard on the left and St Malachy on the right, all three also standing on pillars, are accompanied by Bernard's family.