MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA086.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop Alsace
Date 14C/1
Reference No MS fr. 17115, f 156r (detail)
Size 5.1x6.1(initial only)
Provenance unknown
Present Location Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale
Bibliography Catalogue General des Manuscrits Francais 1898, 2:14

Hamburger 1989, 175-6; Dijon 1953, 48; Aurenhammer 1959-67, 333
Illustration From photo - Library
Other illustrations Hamburger 1989, ill 18

Country France
Description:
An early fourteenth-century Alsatian miniature presents Bernard with St Augustine flanking a full-length Man of Sorrows in an initial S(ains bernairs dit que la grace nostre signour est de tres...) which introduces 'la lamentation saint bernare' (sic). Christ has his arms crossed as in 'Imago pietatis', the body flecked with blood, together with the miniature in the Rothschuild Canticles (fol 19) one of the earliest images of the full-length Man of Sorrows. The side-wound is not visible, but both Bernard and Augustine bear side-wounds revealed by cuts in their clothing, a sign of their compassion and indicated by arrows, a sign that they too have been transfixed. The initial is blue with white dots on a gold ground with a green border and fleuronne decoration. In the centre Christ with a crown of thorns is cross-nimbed, on the right a bearded Bernard is in a brown cowl, on the left St Augustine wears a mitre.