MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA130.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop probably Antwerp
Date 15C/4
Reference No formerly MS Ludwig VI 4, f 188v (detail)
Size
Provenance Antwerp, St Salvator Cistercian Abbey
Present Location not known
Bibliography Euw & Plotzek 1979-85, 1:276-9

Aachen 1981, 372
Illustration From
Other illustrations Aachen 1981, 363, ill 3

Country Belgium
Description:
Gradual dated 1479 from the Cistercian priory of St Salvator in Antwerp, founded from the Dutch abbey of Ysselstein in 1432 and became an abbey in 1652. The historiated initial I(n medio ecclesie) from the opening of the Mass for the feast of Bernard has a nimbed Bernard kneeling with hands clasped before an altar upon which the Virgin is sitting. She holds the Child with her left hand while she squeezes her bared breast with her right hand sending a jet of milk in Bernard's direction. The traditional banderole has the traditional words 'Monstra te esse matrem'. On folio 1v of the same manuscript a donor monk kneeling before the Virgo Lactans is depicted with the inscription 'benedic me virgo maria'. The background consists of a mountain and river landscape with two towns and a castle.