The Secular and the Sacred in a Bifolio from Louis of Laval’s Book of Hours and Its Spiritual Use
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Dafna Nissim
Abstract
A bifolio from a Book of Hours made for Louis of Laval is the point of departure for this article. I explore the blurred boundaries between the sacred and the secular in the portrait of the patron and his attendants and the depiction of the Virgin, the Infant, and a choir of angels. I contend that as in other portraits of noble devotees praying to the Virgin and Child, in Laval’s Book of Hours, the two parts of the bifolio were designed to give the owner a sense of familiarity with the sacred figures. Through a series of choices, the artist suggested the shared character of the secular and profane figures, that is, their humanness, and other points of similarity. The cognitive-emotional experience of kinship might well have encouraged the devotee to aspire toward spiritual union with the Divine.
Abstract
A bifolio from a Book of Hours made for Louis of Laval is the point of departure for this article. I explore the blurred boundaries between the sacred and the secular in the portrait of the patron and his attendants and the depiction of the Virgin, the Infant, and a choir of angels. I contend that as in other portraits of noble devotees praying to the Virgin and Child, in Laval’s Book of Hours, the two parts of the bifolio were designed to give the owner a sense of familiarity with the sacred figures. Through a series of choices, the artist suggested the shared character of the secular and profane figures, that is, their humanness, and other points of similarity. The cognitive-emotional experience of kinship might well have encouraged the devotee to aspire toward spiritual union with the Divine.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Table of Contents VII
- Blurred Boundaries in Pre-Modern Texts and Images: Aspects of Audiences and Readers-Viewers Responses 1
- The Sacred and the Profane in German Courtly Romances and Late Medieval Verse Narratives: With an Emphasis on Ulrich Bonerius and Heinrich Kaufringer 15
- The Poetic and Ideological Blurring of Boundaries in the Jewish Book of Ethics Orḥot Ṣaddiqim 41
- Laughing at Death: Blurred Boundaries in Giotto’s Last Judgment 57
- The Popular in Service of the Sacred: The Sculpted Musicians of Santiago de Compostela 79
- Image and Legend of Saint Margaret as an Aid in Childbirth Rituals 101
- Violent Women and the Blurring of Gender in some Medieval Narratives 125
- On the Heavenly and the Earthly, the Secular as Sacred – A New Reading of Medieval Hebrew Fables 145
- The Secular and the Sacred in a Bifolio from Louis of Laval’s Book of Hours and Its Spiritual Use 165
- Between Psalter and “Mirrors for Princes”: On the Moral and Didactic Messages in BL Cotton MS Domitian A XVII 185
- Visual and Textual Authority: Reading Chevalier in Manuscripts of La Vie des pères 205
- Aspects of Italian and Flemish Identity in Relation to Book Illumination: Reception of Devotional and Antiquarian Ideas through Depictions of Jewelry 229
- List of Illustrations 249
- Notes on Contributors 253
- Index 255
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Table of Contents VII
- Blurred Boundaries in Pre-Modern Texts and Images: Aspects of Audiences and Readers-Viewers Responses 1
- The Sacred and the Profane in German Courtly Romances and Late Medieval Verse Narratives: With an Emphasis on Ulrich Bonerius and Heinrich Kaufringer 15
- The Poetic and Ideological Blurring of Boundaries in the Jewish Book of Ethics Orḥot Ṣaddiqim 41
- Laughing at Death: Blurred Boundaries in Giotto’s Last Judgment 57
- The Popular in Service of the Sacred: The Sculpted Musicians of Santiago de Compostela 79
- Image and Legend of Saint Margaret as an Aid in Childbirth Rituals 101
- Violent Women and the Blurring of Gender in some Medieval Narratives 125
- On the Heavenly and the Earthly, the Secular as Sacred – A New Reading of Medieval Hebrew Fables 145
- The Secular and the Sacred in a Bifolio from Louis of Laval’s Book of Hours and Its Spiritual Use 165
- Between Psalter and “Mirrors for Princes”: On the Moral and Didactic Messages in BL Cotton MS Domitian A XVII 185
- Visual and Textual Authority: Reading Chevalier in Manuscripts of La Vie des pères 205
- Aspects of Italian and Flemish Identity in Relation to Book Illumination: Reception of Devotional and Antiquarian Ideas through Depictions of Jewelry 229
- List of Illustrations 249
- Notes on Contributors 253
- Index 255
