Fig. 361.—Facsimile of a Miniature of a Psalter, of the Thirteenth Century, representing warlike, scientific, commercial, and agricultural Works. (Imperial Library, Paris.)
medallions representing divers episodes suggested by the text of the Psalms ([Fig. 361]). After this psalter we must place the Breviary of St. Louis, or rather of Queen Blanche, formerly preserved in the Arsenal Library, Paris, and now in the Musée des Souverains; a celebrated manuscript which has, on folio 191, this inscription: “C’est le Psautier monseigneur St. Loys, lequel fu à sa mère.”[57] But the volume is not rich in large miniatures. We observe in it, however, a calendar ornamented with small subjects very delicately executed, representing the labours appropriate to each month, according to the seasons of the year. The character of the paintings exhibits a style anterior to the reign of Louis IX.; and it is supposed, indeed, that this book first belonged to the mother of that king.
We must now mention another Psalter, which was actually used by St. Louis; as is proved not only by an inscription at the beginning of the volume, but still further by the fleurs-de-lis of the king, the arms of Blanche of Castile, his mother, and perhaps also les pals de gueules of Margaret of Provence, his wife. Nothing can equal the beautiful preservation of the miniatures in this volume, which contains seventy-eight subjects, with as many explanatory texts in French. The heads of the characters, though almost microscopic, have nevertheless, generally, a fine expression.
Fig. 362.—A Border taken from a Gospel in Latin, of the Thirteenth Century.
(Imperial Library, Paris.)
The “Livre de Clergie,” which bears the date of 1260, merits far less attention: so does the “Roman du Roi Artus,” No. 6,963, in the Imperial Library, Paris, executed in 1276. But we must point out two of the most beautiful examples of this period, a Book of the Gospels in Latin, No. 665 in the Supplement, Imperial Library, from which we have borrowed an elegant border ([Fig. 362]), and the “Roman du Saint-Graal,” No. 6,769, also in the Imperial Library.
Italy was then at the head of civilisation in everything; it had particularly inherited the grand traditions of painting which had gone to sleep for ever in Greece only to wake up again in Europe.
