MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA031.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop Paris or North France
Date 13C/4
Reference No MS W 137, f 180v (detail)
Size 5.5x6.5
Provenance
Present Location Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore
Bibliography Randall 1989-92, 1:123-7

Folda 1976, 208-11; De Ricci 1935, 850
Illustration From Randall 1989-92, 1:ill 104
Other illustrations

Country France
Description:
One of the works in a composite manuscript from 1295-1300 in Old French is the 'Estoire d'Eracles' (History of Outremer) by Archbishop William II of Tyre which goes up to 1229 and contains eighteen historiated initials. One of these, in Book 16 chapter 35, is of Bernard preaching the Second Crusade to a group of lay people, two kneeling in the foreground, behind one man and one woman, and behind Bernard are two men standing. Above the initial P(ar le commandement l'apostoile sesmurent...) it says in red ink: ' le sermon saint biernart par la terre de surie'. His right hand is stretched out towards his audience, his left hand raised with the index finger pointing in a teaching mode. The listeners have their hands raised indicating their attentiveness and enthusiasm. This image is almost identical to the one in the MS Epinal 45 (see MA30).