MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA093.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop Jean Fouquet
Date 15C/3
Reference No MS 71, f 40r
Size 16x13
Provenance
Present Location Chantilly, Musee Conde
Bibliography Reau 1955-9, 3:1:215; Aurenhammer 1959-67, 340

Schaefer 1972, No 40; France 1998, 92; Paffrath 1984, 205; Schmitt 1990, 158; Schmitt 1992, 651
Illustration From photo - RMN (Rene-Gabriel Ojeda)
Other illustrations van der Meer 1965, ill 1; Paris 1990, 71

France 1998, ill 50; Huempfner 1927, 1:46; Leclercq 1976, 128
Country France
Description:
Jean Fouquet's masterpiece 'Heures d'Etienne Chevalier', dated just after the middle of the fifteenth century. In a full-page miniature Bernard is shown preaching to his monks in the chapter house at Clairvaux, depicted with six vaults supported by two columns. He is standing at a lectern, listing the points on his fingers in what may be one of his sermons on the Song of Songs. The monks are listening to him with varying degrees of attention, some expressing their agreement by raising their hands, others listening carefully while holding their hands or folding their arms, while one or two appear relatively disinterested. Unusually Bernard and the monks are dressed in white tunics and black scapulars and not the cowls they would have worn in chapter. The monks are wearing black caps and Bernard a red cap, such as may be seen in MA11, MA146 and PA06. In the lower half Bernard is depicted sitting at a desk on the left in a scene of the legend of the devil and the nine verses. A brown horned devil with a tail and bat-like wings creeps up behind Bernard, interrupting him while reading the psalms. Bernard turns round and with his left index finger he points to an open psalter on the desk before him.