MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA023.jpg


Category	Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop	Heisterbach Cistercian Abbey?
Date	13C/4
Reference No	MS W 255, f 1v
Size	33x24
Provenance	unknown - nuns' abbey?
Present Location	Cologne, Historisches Archiv
Bibliography	Swarzenski 1936, 1:19; Leclercq 1953, 227; Aachen 1980, 369
	Paffrath 1990, 76,85; Dupeux 1993, 153; France 1998, 167-8; Dijon 1953, 48
Illustration From	Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Other illustrations	Paffrath 1990, 85; France 1998, ill 114
	Leclercq 1966, 100; Eberbach 2003, 81
Country	Germany

Description:
In a full-page miniature from a Sermon collection of St Bernard from c 1300 the central figures are Mary, nimbed and crowned and sitting on an elaborate throne under a round trifoliate arch, with a cross-nimbed Child, his right hand raised in blessing, on her knees. On the right is a tonsured and nimbed Bernard with a short beard wearing a brown cowl and with a crozier in his right hand and a book in his left. His gaze is fixed on the Child. On the left is a small figure of a kneeling Cistercian nun in a brown habit, black veil, and white wimple, and gazing upwards at Mary and the Child. The artist has represented the three figures in three quite distinct scales in order of their importance in what was quite normal medieval practice: largest are the central characters, then Bernard, and smallest the kneeling nun.

Description:

In a full-page miniature from a Sermon collection of St Bernard from c 1300 the central figures are Mary, nimbed and crowned and sitting on an elaborate throne under a round trifoliate arch, with a cross-nimbed Child, his right hand raised in blessing, on her knees. On the right is a tonsured and nimbed Bernard with a short beard wearing a brown cowl and with a crozier in his right hand and a book in his left. His gaze is fixed on the Child. On the left is a small figure of a kneeling Cistercian nun in a brown habit, black veil, and white wimple, and gazing upwards at Mary and the Child. The artist has represented the three figures in three quite distinct scales in order of their importance in what was quite normal medieval practice: largest are the central characters, then Bernard, and smallest the kneeling nun.