MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA092.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop
Date 15C/4
Reference No MS Yates Thompson 32, f 9v
Size 20.9x14.9
Provenance Burgundy
Present Location London, British Library
Bibliography Kinder 1990, 206

France 1998, 82
Illustration From slide - Library
Other illustrations Kinder 1990, ill 2

France 1998, ill 40; Martin 1925, 27; Leclercq 1966, 42
Country France
Description:
A wonderfully inaccurate and idealized miniature in the late fifteenth-century Burgundy Chronicle which shows the entry of Bernard and his companions to Clairvaux on 15 June 1115. Behind a nimbed Bernard carrying a gold crozier and an absurdly large group of monks, all in white tunics and black scapulars with gold borders, is an enormous edifice, reminiscent more of the church that was finally built there, or, with its four huge towers, perhaps even more of the sumptuous church at Cluny, than the modest wooden buildings that would have been there upon their arrival. The church has been identified as having been modelled on that of St Servaas in Maastricht. The text below is the beginning of a brief biography of Bernard recording his Burgundian origin. This is surrounded by flowers, a bird, and a butterfly on a gold background.