MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA217.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop Ghent/Bruges
Date 16C/1
Reference No Inv. 946, f 562v
Size
Provenance Manuel I of Portugal ?
Present Location Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh
Bibliography Smeyers & Van der Stock 1996, 49-117 (specially 109)

Illustration From Smeyers & Van der Stock 1996, 109
Other illustrations

Country Belgium
Description:
Manuscript known as the Mayer van den Bergh Breviary made in Ghent/Bruges c 1510 which is thought to have belonged to Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521) and on which at least four artists worked: Master of the Older Prayerbook of Maximilian, Gerard Horenbout, Jan Provoost, & Simon Bening. This brilliant full-page miniature illustrates All Saints' Day. The Holy Spirit appears beneath a flaming sky and a bust of God the Father. Different categories of saints are easy to recognize - popes with tiaras, bishops with mitres, monks by tonsures, hermits by unkempt hair, kings by crowns. A number can be identified: on the left St Dominic in a white habit and black mantle, St Francis in a grey habit and with stigmata, and behind them, probably St Bruno. On the right St Benedict in black and, most prominent of all, a corpulent Bernard with hands folded in prayer and a crozier leaning against his left shoulder and trampling on a devil beneath his feet. The decoration around the saints consists of stylized leaves in a diamond pattern.