The So-Called Byzantine Diptych in the Winchester Psalter, British Library, MS Cotton Nero C. IV

The so-called Byzantine Diptych in the Winchester Psalter, British Library, MS Cotton Nero C. IV*

HOLGER A. KLEIN

University of Bonn

Abstract

One of the most outstanding features of the Win- chester Psalter, British Library, MS Cotton Nero C. IV, is the inclusion of two icon-like images of the Virgin in its lengthy prefatory picture cycle. An iconographic anal- ysis of the miniatures provides new evidence that this so-called Byzantine Diptych was not a faithful copy of a double Byzantine icon, as is generally believed, but the inventive creation of a western artist familiar with the Byzantine pictorial and iconographic traditions. The Byz- antine Diptych is not to be explained as the copy of a lost Byzantine objet d'art which had reached England in some way or other, but as the work of an English artist who traveled east, perhaps as far as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The function of the Byzantine images in the Psalter involves an emphasis on the Virgin's evolving role as the most powerful intercessor, as revealed not only by observing the artist's awareness of Byzantine iconographic formulas and their meaning, but also by the examination of nine Marian prayers at the end of the Winchester manuscript.

The Winchester Psalter in the British Library in London (MS Cotton Nero C. IV), also called the Psalter of St. Swithun's Priory and the Psalter of Henry of Blois, is well known to me- dievalists as one of the outstanding examples of Romanesque book production in twelfth-century England.1 It is composed of 142 parchment leaves, now measuring ca. 32.3 x 22.5 cm, and it contains a bilingual (Latin and Old French) version of the psalms in two columns occupying fols. 46-123v. The psalms are preceded by a calendar (fols. 40-45) and followed by the canticles (fols. 123v-130), Gloria in excelsis (fol. 130), Pater Noster (fol. 130v), Apostles' Creed (ibid.), Quicumque vult (fols. 130v-132), the Litany (fols. 132-132v), collects (fols. 133v-134) and 36 prayers which occupy the remaining fols. 134-142v. The pictorial decoration of the Winchester Psalter consists of a lengthy cycle of 38 full-page miniatures illustrating scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the life of the Virgin, and the Last Judgment at the beginning of the manuscript (fols. 2-39);2 medallions with signs of the zodiac as well as depictions of the labors of the months in the calendar, one historiated initial B for the Latin version of Psalm 1, and four decorated initials, one for the French version of Psalm 1, one for the Latin version of Psalm 26, and one for each version of Psalm 101.3

Although little is known about the provenance and early history of the Psalter, there is some evidence for the attribu-

tion of the manuscript to St. Swithun's priory at Winchester.4 The fact that the feast of Edward the Confessor was not originally included in the calendar provides a reliable terminus ante quem for the completion of the Psalter, i.e., before 1161. On the basis of stylistic comparisons this date is usually narrowed to the years around 1150.5

After the posthumous publication of Francis Wormald's monograph on the Winchester Psalter in 1973, the manuscript became the subject of increased interest to scholars. In the later 1970s no fewer than three doctoral dissertations were dedicated to it, focusing on different aspects of its lengthy prefatory miniature cycle. More than Carol Crown's thesis on "themes of the Virgin Mary, kingship and law,'6 it was Kristine Edmondson Haney's study on the Old and New Tes- tament iconography7 which prompted further examination of the Psalter, especially of its provenance, paint surfaces and "Immaculate imagery."8 At the same time, Mara Witzling's "archaeological investigation" of the manuscript prepared the ground for several attempts to reconstruct the original state of its miniature cycle.9 In 1986 Kristine Haney published an extensive iconographic study of the Psalter based for the most part on her earlier results, but also considering Crown's ideas and Witzling's archaeological findings.10

The manuscript still raises questions which have not been satisfactorily answered, however. One problem is the so-called "Byzantine Diptych,"1I a pair of thematically connected representations of the Virgin painted in a style and technique distinct from all other miniatures in the cycle and closely following Byzantine iconography (Figs. 2 and 3). Taking into account not only the exceptional fact of two Byzantine-looking miniatures in an English twelfth-century manuscript,12 but also their distinctive character as hieratic, icon-like images of the Virgin in an otherwise narrative picture cycle, it seems appropriate to subject this so-called Byz- antine Diptych to a separate examination.

The Byzantine Diptych and the Romanesque Picture Cycle

Inserted between the end of a Christological cycle (fols. 10-28) and the beginning of a sequence of nine miniatures connected with the Last Judgment (fols. 31-39), the images on fols. 29 and 30 occupy a pivotal position between the image of Christ in Majesty (Fig. 1) and a full-page miniature of the Resurrection of the Dead (Fig. 4).13 Considering the original arrangement of the miniatures in pairs, as first proposed

26 GESTA XXXVII/1 ? The International Center of Medieval Art 1998

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by Francis Wormald14 and later confirmed by Mara Witzling,'5 the miniatures once formed an opening distinct in theme, style and painting technique from all other images in the prefatory cycle. The general layout of both miniatures is the same. Measuring ca. 27.0 x 17.5 cm, both occupy an entire page and are encompassed by a narrow, carefully shaded frame.16

Unfortunately, the miniatures have suffered from time. Color, especially the deep blue of the backgrounds and the gilding, has flaked off in various places.17

Directly above the frame of the miniatures two Anglo- Norman French inscriptions, ICI EST LA SUMPTION DE NOSTRE DAME on fol. 29 and ICI EST FAITE REINE DEL CIEL on fol. 30, reveal that the images were understood to illustrate the Assumption of the Virgin and the enthroned Queen of Heaven.18 Not only the Byzantine miniatures but also most of the other images in the cycle are accompanied by captions in Anglo-Norman French. They were not written by the scribe responsible for the text of the psalms and the inscriptions on the scrolls carried by some of the figures in the miniatures. Lin- guistic and orthographic evidence indicates that these captions can be regarded as slightly later, but still twelfth-century, additions inserted to clarify the meaning of the miniatures.19

In the center of the image on fol. 29, the deceased Vir- gin lies on her deathbed surrounded by the twelve mourning apostles. All figures have halos, which were once gilded. The Virgin is dressed in a green undergarment, a purple robe decorated with fine arabesques, and a light blue veil. Her head rests on a green cushion which is almost hidden behind her halo. Her eyes are closed and her arms are crossed over her lap. The Virgin's deathbed is covered by two spreads, vermilion on top and light blue underneath, so that only its gilded and incised supports are visible on the left-hand side. St. Peter is leaning on one of the supports at the head of the Virgin's bed, swinging a gilded censer. Behind St. Peter the heads of four other apostles can be seen, partly covered by his halo. On the opposite side of the bed St. Paul is bending over the Virgin's body, pressing himself affectionately against her legs. Behind St. Paul five more apostles are grouped together, all clothed in a similar manner. One of these apostles has raised his right hand in a gesture of prayer, another supports his head with his hand in an attitude of mourning. St. John kneels behind the deathbed, gazing at the Virgin's face and touching her veil with his outstretched left hand. In the background, the enlarged figure of Christ, dressed in a vermilion undergarment, a yellowish pallium and a purple cloak, raises the Virgin's child-like soul in his arms. Like the Virgin's robe, Christ's undergarment is decorated with fine

arabesques in a white tone. The soul of the Virgin is to be received by two angels with veiled hands descending from heaven in each of the upper corners. Once more an arabesque ornament can be observed decorating the crimson veil carried by the angel left of Christ. Between the two angels directly above Christ's head, the blessing hand of God emerges from heaven in a semi-circular segment.

In front of the Virgin's bed, partly covered by the figure of St. Paul, is an open sarcophagus, the purple color and cracked surface of which resemble porphyry.20 The sarcophagus is embedded in a kind of wavy ground, which also provides the base on which SS. Peter and Paul are standing. This wavy ground is composed of two bands of triangular segments staggered one behind the other. In the left corner some more segments have been added to raise the ground to St. Pe- ter's feet. Although an attempt was made to provide some kind of ground for the figures to stand on, the spatial rela- tions between figures and objects are anything but clear. The supports of the Virgin's deathbed, for instance, are simply set before the deep blue background. The position of St. Paul, standing in front of the sarcophagus but bending over the Virgin's body behind it, is ambiguous. The same applies to St. Peter, who is able to put his hand around the far left support of the Virgin's bed, although he is clearly standing in front of it swinging a censer.

The miniature on fol. 30, representing the Virgin as Queen of Heaven, shows her seated frontally on a gem-studded throne with a flat cushion, flanked by two angels each carrying a labarum. The Virgin's dress consists of a light blue undergarment, parts of which are also visible at her sleeves, a purple robe, a yellowish cloak and a green veil. Her feet rest on a footstool, and her hands are raised in front of her chest with the palms turned towards the viewer in a gesture of prayer. The angels flanking the richly decorated throne are dressed in courtly garments with gem-studded loroi. Like the Virgin, the angels have lifted their free hands before their chests in a gesture which may imply worship and devotion. The wavy ground on which the throne and the angels are standing is similar to the ground in the Assumption of the Virgin on fol. 29. Problems of spatial depth occur only with the angel at the right, whose toe is in front of the throne but whose body is behind it.

Consisting of two thematically interrelated Marian images, the Byzantine Diptych forms at first glance a somewhat unusual transition from Christological to Last Judgment scenes. It is thus hardly surprising that scholars at one time suggested that both miniatures did not originally belong to the prefatory cycle of miniatures, but were added at a later date.21 Yet, since the dimensions and the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman French captions are consistent throughout the cycle, it is now generally accepted that the Byzantine Dip- tych was executed together with the rest of the miniatures.22 However, a reconsideration of the results of Haney's examination of the paint surfaces in the Winchester Psalter provides some evidence that the situation may have been even more complex.23 Observing the application of opaque paint, black ink, and gilding to the partly unfinished colored outline drawings of the Romanesque picture cycle, especially the application of an opaque blue pigment for the backgrounds of most miniatures, Haney concluded that the original cycle of miniatures was initially planned as a series of tinted drawings,

27



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and reworked by a less skillful artisan shortly before its completion.24 She regarded the addition of explanatory Anglo- Norman French inscriptions as part of this project to rework the prefatory cycle. If all of the miniatures of the Old and New Testament cycle as well as the miniatures of the Last Judgment cycle were executed as tinted outline drawings and then partially overpainted, it is striking that the images on fols. 29 and 30 are the only miniatures which do not seem to have been altered and show no additions.25 On the contrary, the scant use of under-drawing clearly indicates that the miniatures forming the Byzantine Diptych were always intended to be painted and gilded. Thus, one is tempted to suggest that the Byzantine Diptych was inserted as an afterthought to an already planned, but not yet finished prefatory picture cycle. The consistency of measurements within the cycle further indicates that the artist responsible for the execution of the

Byzantine Diptych worked with knowledge of the already existing miniatures. Considering the deep blue backgrounds and gilding of the Byzantine miniatures, one might propose that the execution of the Diptych prompted the reworking of the already existing Romanesque drawings, especially the application of an opaque blue pigment to the backgrounds. The addition of Anglo-Norman French captions would have been the final step in this reworking project.

Iconography

As the inscription reveals, the miniature on fol. 29 was understood to represent the assumption of the Virgin. This subject is based on an apocryphal account of the Virgin's death, different versions of which were known in the east and the west.26 Although a Latin version of the text, falsely

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attributed to the second-century bishop Melito of Sardis,27 was available in the west as early as the seventh century, the apocryphal account itself did not have a direct impact on the development of western imagery of the Virgin's death and assumption before the twelfth century.28 Early depictions of the death and assumption of the Virgin in Ottonian manuscripts are closely dependent on Byzantine koimesis scenes, known most probably through portable objects like the Byz- antine ivories inserted into the covers of two Reichenau manuscripts, the famous Gospel book of Emperor Otto III (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 4453) and a book of pericopes in Wolfenbtittel (Herzog-August-Bibliothek, MS 84.5 Aug. 2o0).29 As these ivories and numerous other examples30 show, the Byzantine formula of the koimesis re- mained almost unchanged over the centuries and always included the figure of Christ lifting the Virgin's soul to be carried

to heaven by angels.31 It is hardly surprising that Reichenau artists did not hesitate to adopt Byzantine koimesis imagery for representations of the Virgin's assumption, an aspect of her dormition especially emphasized from the tenth century onwards. They soon started experimenting, however, and modified the original Byzantine formula by introducing an image of the Virgin being carried up to heaven in a clipeus.32

Although the Winchester miniature is thus not the first example that illustrates the Virgin's assumption by using a Byzantine koimesis scene as its model, it is still the earliest extant English example using the koimesis with consider- able iconographic fidelity.33 Yet, like most of the Ottonian images, the Winchester miniature comprises elements which cannot be explained by Byzantine iconography. The sarcophagus placed in front of the Virgin's deathbed is a detail never found in Byzantine koimesis scenes. It is a substitution for

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the footstool which is always part of Byzantine compositions. The meaning of this open tomb, which occurs here for the first time in connection with the death of the Virgin in an English manuscript, has been a matter of conjecture. It has been regarded as either a misunderstanding of the Byzantine footstool,34 or a reference to the bodily assumption of the Vir- gin.35 It could, however, equally be seen as a reference to the entombment of the Virgin after her death, as depicted in various other manuscripts.36

Another element which is not found in Byzantine koimesis scenes, but is present in earlier western images of the Virgin's death and assumption, is the hand of God emerging from heaven in a semicircular segment. Ottonian miniatures like those in a tenth-century Troper in Bamberg (Staatsbib- liothek, Cod. Lit. 5, fol. 121v), or the already mentioned eleventh-century Lectionary in Hildesheim (Dombibliothek, Cod. 688, fol. 77), clearly betray the western heritage of this element.37 Decidedly western in character is also the wavy ground and the clouds in the upper corners of the miniature.

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FIGURE 6. Lavaudieu (France), chapter house, Enthroned Virgin and Apostles (photo: Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munich).

Very similar examples can be observed in the famous wall painting of St. Paul with the viper in St. Anselm's chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, recently dated in the early 1160s (Fig. 5),38 the wall paintings of the chapter house of the an- cient abbey of Lavaudieu in central France (Fig. 6),39 and, as Ursula Nilgen has pointed out most recently, in the crypt frescoes of Marienberg Abbey near Mals in the Vinschgau, dated about 1160/70.40

Although images of the enthroned Virgin flanked by two attendant angels are found from the fifth century onwards in icon painting41 and mosaic,42 as well as in other media,43 these examples usually represent the Virgin holding Christ on her lap. This is due to the fact that the theological importance of the Virgin was primarily determined by her status as theotokos, an epithet she was officially given at the Council of Ephesos in 431.44 As Mother of God she deserved a position at the peak of the heavenly hierarchy, and authors like John of Damascus45 and Andrew of Crete46 did not hesitate to praise her as the Queen of Queens and ruler of mankind. Yet it was only in the Latin west that an iconographic tradition was established representing the Virgin as Queen.47 The explanatory inscription on fol. 30 of the Winchester Psalter leaves little doubt that the image of the enthroned Virgin has to be understood in this decidedly western tradition, though it is conspicuous that she is not herself crowned and does not carry any regal insignia.48 What makes her a queen in this image is the golden gem-studded throne on which she is seated and the guard of flanking angels carrying labara and wearing pseudo-Byzantine courtly garments.49

Looking for similar Byzantine compositions, scholars have frequently referred to the apse mosaics of Monreale and Cefali.50 However, such comparisons are too general to stand up to closer scrutiny. Although similar in the arrangement of

30



figures, the Sicilian representations differ strongly from the Psalter miniature in iconography. Neither the standing Virgin orans in Cefalh nor the enthroned Virgin holding Christ on her lap in the apse mosaic of Monreale has a great deal in common with the enthroned Virgin of the Winchester Psalter. The focus of an iconographic examination should therefore be narrowed to those images of the enthroned Virgin which show her with a guard of angels but without the Child.

Even in Byzantine art, images of the Virgin raising her hands in front of her chest with the palms turned towards the onlooker occur only rarely. Unfortunately, there is no thorough examination of this iconographic type.51 Referring to two examples of a similar orans gesture, the serpentine tondo with the bust portrait of the Virgin in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 7)52 and the standing Virgin in the apse mosaic of SS. Maria e Donato at Murano of about 1150,53 Gertrud Schiller simply noted that images of this kind oc- curred primarily in the decorative arts and in the sphere of Byzantine influence in Italy.54 Sometimes the type is explicitly referred to as "Venetian" because of its frequent appearance in and around twelfth-century Venice.55 But since the inscription "God-bearer, help the Christ-loving lord Nike- phoros Botaneiates" around the tondo in the Victoria and Albert Museum provides good evidence that the image of the Virgin raising her hands before her chest implies her role as an intercessor, this iconographic type should be referred to as "intercessory" rather than "Venetian." It is in fact late eleventh- and early twelfth-century Constantinopolitan and not Venetian art that provides the closest comparisons with the miniature in the Winchester Psalter.

Two illuminated Byzantine manuscripts of the Homilies of the Monk James, preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (MS grec 1208) and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vati- cana in Rome (Vat. gr. 1162), contain several miniatures representing the Virgin in a composition similar to the one in the Winchester Psalter.56 The illustration for the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on fol. 5 of the Vatican manuscript shows her in front of a choir of angels surrounded by groups of saints, patriarchs, monks, kings and queens (Fig. 8). An- other miniature on fol. 48v shows her as part of an Anastasis (Fig. 9).57 With hands raised before her chest the Virgin is seated on a throne in Paradise, flanked by two angels. Adam and Eve in front of the throne thank her for their redemption. The similarity between the images found in these two manu-

scripts and the composition in the Psalter is striking, but

equally striking comparisons can be made with miniatures in other Byzantine manuscripts.

A Gospel book also preserved in the Bibliothbque Na- tionale (MS grec 74) contains two miniatures illustrating the Last Judgment on fol. 93v and fol. 51v (Fig. 10).58 Beside an

image of Abraham's bosom both miniatures show in their lower register a representation of the enthroned Virgin in

Paradise, praised by the saved as they enter. Although the

flanking angels are omitted in both instances, the images

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show the Virgin raising her hands before her chest as observed already in the miniatures of the Homilies. Another image of the Virgin in Paradise can be found-again as part of a Last Judgment composition-in an eleventh-century manuscript with illustrations to John Climacus's treatise on the Heavenly Ladder, preserved in the Vatican Library as Vat. gr. 394 (Fig. 11).59 As in the Paris Gospel book, the Vir- gin is seated on a throne beside Abraham, her hands raised in the described pose. The attendant angels which were omitted from Paris grec 74 can be seen on either side of the Virgin's throne, as in both copies of the Homilies of the Monk James.

The twelfth-century wall paintings at Akhtala (Georgia) provide yet another example which is remarkably similar to the Winchester composition, once again as part of a Last Judgment (Fig. 12).60 The Virgin is seated on a throne in Par- adise flanked by two attendant angels, who have raised one hand as if to draw attention to the figure between them. The setting is almost identical to the Last Judgment scenes in Paris grec 74 and Vat. gr. 394. On her right-hand side, Abra- ham is represented with the blessed in his bosom; on her left the saved are entering Paradise, led by the good thief.61 There can be no doubt that all of these representations of the enthroned Virgin in Byzantine Anastasis and Last Judgment scenes were intended to show the Virgin as the heavenly intercessor for the salvation of man on the day of judgment. A final example of this intercessory type is a twelfth-century wall painting in the ossuary of the monastery at Bachkovo in Bulgaria (Fig. 13).62 Among the cited Byzantine works this

31



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is the only example in which the intercessor appears in iso- lation. Inscribed into a wall arcade, the Virgin is shown seated on a throne and flanked by two angels. Flowers and blos- soms in the background indicate that the setting is Paradise. Although it is an isolated scene, the decidedly funerary context of the painting leaves no doubt that it is closely connected with the idea of the Virgin's intercession on the day of judgment and the hope for resurrection and assumption into Paradise.

These Byzantine examples suggest that the composition seen in the Winchester Psalter ultimately derives from a Byz- antine Last Judgment or-less likely-an Anastasis. Since the full-page miniature succeeding the enthroned Virgin on fol. 31 represents the resurrection of the dead as the first miniature of a Last Judgment cycle, the image in the Winchester Psalter seems still to indicate its original context. Although there are no earlier western examples using the same Byz- antine composition as faithfully as the Winchester miniature, the tympanum of the west portal of Autun Cathedral provides evidence that the iconographic type of the interceding Virgin was known and used in a Last Judgment composition in early twelfth-century France (Fig. 14),63 and a miniature in an antiphonary from the abbey of Prtim, now in Paris (Biblio- theque Nationale, MS lat. 9448, fol. 62v), demonstrates that the Byzantine type of the enthroned Virgin with her hands raised in front of her chest was already understood as an image of her powerful intercession in Paradise in the late tenth century. In the antiphonary she is shown without her angelic guard as an illustration for the sequences of the Virgin's nativity, which, interestingly, follows right after the sequences of the Virgin's assumption illustrated by an image which is itself modeled on a Byzantine koimesis scene (fol. 60v).64

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The Artist and his Model

The information gained from the iconographic examination of the Byzantine Diptych leaves no doubt that both miniatures adhere closely to Byzantine iconographic sources. Yet elements like the wavy ground, the porphyry sarcophagus in front of the Virgin's deathbed and the hand of God emerging from heaven clearly belong to the western tradition, and suggest that the Byzantine Diptych was in fact the work of a western artist, most probably an Englishman. Kris- tine Haney even suggested that the artist of the Byzantine Diptych was the same person responsible for the execution of the other miniatures in the cycle.65 The different style and painting technique of the two miniatures seem to me, however, to contradict this proposition.66 The drapery in the Byzantine miniatures differs not only from the clinging curvilinear style of the Romanesque miniatures in the cycle, but also from anything else we know in extant contemporary En- glish manuscripts. Undoubtedly rooted in the Byzantinizing style of the Bury Bible67 (Cambridge, Corpus Christi Col- lege, MS 2) (Fig. 15), illuminated by Magister Hugo for the

33



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FIGURE 14. Autun, cathedral, west portal, tympanum, detail, Virgin in Paradise (photo: author).

abbey of Bury St. Edmunds in about 1135, the Byzantine miniatures of the Winchester Psalter seem to reject the clinging curvilinear convention of the Romanesque miniatures in favor of a much softer drapery style, which ultimately led to the gently curving draperies of the famous Eadwine portrait in the Eadwine Psalter68 (Cambridge, Trinity College, R 17.1, fol. 283v) (Fig. 16) and the somewhat later Copenhagen Psalter69 (Copenhagen, Royal Library, MS Thott 143 20) of ca. 1170.70 In the restrained application of arabesque patterns and the refined use of white highlights, however, the Byzan- tine miniatures are more closely related to the earlier style of the Bury Bible.

The very painterly quality of the miniatures, especially the adherence to Byzantine facial contours and shading technique (Fig. 17), suggests that the Master of the Byzantine Diptych not only had access to Byzantine models but must have been trained to work in a decidedly Byzantine manner. Thus, two further questions arise: what kind of model did the artist use to create the Byzantine Diptych? And where did he learn his skills?

K79 FIGURE 15. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 2, fol. 94, Moses and Aaron expounding the Law to the people of Israel (photo: Conway Li-

brary, by permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge).

IT

JZA

0111P,

.. ...........

FIGURE 16. Cambridge, Trinity College, R 17.1, fol. 283v, Eadwine (photo: Conway Library, by permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge).

34



malow. KIM "I Wo x??, 0 x!52.5, i In

i k K_- ... ...... .. . .... .. . 5-w

01 . RX

mm ........... ..... ........... w:x.

FIGURE 17. London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero C. IV, fol. 29, Assumption of the Virgin, detail, head of St. Paul (photo: Conway Library).

Regarding the model, it seems to be widely accepted that the artist of these two pages faithfully copied "an icon in the form of a diptych."71 Although the existence of a Byzan- tine diptych representing the Death of the Virgin and the Vir- gin in Paradise has never been proven, this assessment has not previously been questioned. The diptych-like placement of the Byzantine miniatures in the prefatory picture cycle of a twelfth-century English Psalter, and the fact that these images form a distinct iconographic and stylistic unity, does indeed support the idea of an artist attempting to follow as closely as possible a Byzantine model. Yet the iconographic examination has revealed that this cannot have been the case. Using iconographic formulas derived from different Byzan- tine scenes, the artist did not hesitate to include certain western elements in his composition. The resulting pastiche of Byzantine and western features in both miniatures indicates that the artist did not copy any one Byzantine icon but composed the miniatures himself, using and modifying available Byzantine material in a thoughtful and intelligent manner. The fact that the specific type of the interceding Virgin flanked by two attendant angels generally occurs as part of Byzan- tine Last Judgments and cannot be found in close connection with koimesis scenes in Byzantine art, further implies that the artist selected and brought together pieces from different Byzantine sources to compose a Byzantine-like diptych especially constructed for its place in the Winchester Psalter.

Other details of the miniatures confirm that the artist did not copy directly from Byzantine paintings. While in Byz- antium the Virgin is usually dressed in an all-over dark blue or purple robe with a maphorion, the Winchester artist used different colors for different parts of her dress. Moreover, the green that he used for the Virgin's veil and the swaddling

clothes of her child-like soul is unthinkable in a Byzantine painting.72 Since the miniatures reveal the artist's great interest in imitating Byzantine style and iconography, the application of unusual colors implies that he may have worked from uncolored models.73 The fact that the images most probably were compiled from different sources may even suggest that the artist worked from drawings in a private model- or motif book74 that contained Byzantine figures and compositions sketched from different scenes. Survivals like the so-called

Wolfenbiitteler Musterbuch75 (Wolfenbittel, Herzog-August- Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 61. 2 Aug 80) and the Freiburg Leaf76

(Freiburg, Augustinermuseum, Inv.-Nr. G 23/la) suggest the existence and use of such sketchbooks in western workshops.77 Nevertheless, the evidence for motif books containing whole compositions like the koimesis or parts of a Last Judgment is slight. The Wolfenbiitteler Musterbuch and the Freiburg Leaf are the only known examples to contain parts of multi-figured compositions drawn from different Byzantine scenes.

The possibility of the artist's use of a motif book does not answer the question of the sources from which his sketches were derived, or where he had learned his painterly skills. Byzantine Italy and especially Sicily have often been proposed as the most likely places where a western artist could have come into contact with Byzantine works of art. But the iconographic and stylistic comparisons which have been made between the Winchester miniatures and Italo-Byzantine works are general and hardly prove this connection.78 Moreover, the earlier contacts between south Italy and the Byzantine Em- pire, such as the activity of mosaicists from Byzantium and Alexandria at the monastery of Monte Cassino in the 1070s,79 or the commission of bronze doors from Constantinopolitan workshops by several south Italian patrons in the 1060s,80 had little effect on a European scale, i.e., on the development of the pictorial arts in England and France. The unexpected success of the First Crusade and the establishment of a Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, however, offered opportunities for a broader cultural exchange between east and west.81 As the pioneering studies of Hugo Buchthal82 and Kurt Weitzmann revealed,83 there is good evidence that western artists not only from Italy, but also from France, England and Germany used the chance to travel east in the retinue of pilgrims visiting the holy sites and to work in the artistic centers of the new kingdom. The role played by these traveling artists in the transmission of Byzantine style and iconography to countries which had no direct connections with the Byzantine Empire is still a matter of conjecture, as direct evidence is scant.

Although Otto Demus's comparison between the image of the Enthroned Virgin on fol. 30 of the Winchester Psalter and the Virgin and Child in the Queen Melisende Psalter (London, British Library, MS Egerton 1139) is anything but convincing as regards both style and iconography (Fig. 18), his suggestion that the two English miniatures may ultimately derive from the art of Outremer seems to offer a possible explanation not only for the Byzantinizing style of the diptych,

35



sWiti~Ln~tff~1 iuu p?iunnell-f~~

!nles.aot. wv. .p . .i.xw .u.t.

f qi

FIGURE 18. London, British Library, MS Egerton 1139, fol. 202v, Virgin and Child (photo: Conway Library).

but also for its hybrid character.84 Comprising elements of English, Byzantine, south Italian and even Islamic origin in its pictorial decoration, the Queen Melisende Psalter itself bears witness to western artists copying from Byzantine models and working in a Byzantinizing style (Fig. 19).85 Propos- ing once again a connection with Outremer, Annemarie Weyl Carr most recently argued that the Byzantine pictures in the Winchester Psalter may have drawn on an image of the koimesis in the church outside Jerusalem where the Virgin's tomb was housed, and she further suggested that "the 'diptych's' Byzantine imagery may have been a way of conveying this pilgrimage vision in England."'86 Although it seems likely that the Master of the Byzantine Diptych was an Englishman who traveled east and later returned to England, the Byzantine koimesis was too popular and widespread an image to imply identification with a specific site.87 Whether the artist jour-

I'M 4 M . ..? .0- 4'U", . .

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'?w N MOM= Ismaimmsed . .. .. ... ....... . . . A l l ................. .1 ............... ova ?"m

Mom! no. ' ', ....... .. .

"wenns .. .... .. . ...... ................ ! ............. .... .

. .. . . .: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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CR,

If

'814

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FIGURE 19. London, British Library, MS Egerton 1139, fol. 12, Koimesis

(photo: Conway Library).

neyed to the holy sites in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and worked there, or sketched Byzantine compositions while working in the wider orbit of Byzantine art must therefore remain uncertain. In either case, the artist's awareness of Byz- antine iconographic formulas and their meaning, as well as his ability to emulate Byzantine style suggest his close contact with Byzantine works. His familiarity with Byzantine art does not, however, explain the inclusion of an icon-like Mar- ian diptych in an otherwise narrative prefatory picture cycle.

Images of the Virgin in English Psalters

Images of the Virgin are not unusual in English illuminated psalters. One of the earliest isolated representations of the Virgin can be found in the initial Q of Psalm 51 in the so-called Bury Psalter (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,

36



. .. . .. .. .. ......... . . ........ . . . ..... .ii~ i!!iiiiii!i~ i i~ i!•iii~ ii!i• •ii i~ii ! •i• • i

....... - - - - -•? • , . . . ..• • ,

iii • < •• ... . . • . .... .. •!!ii•~iii•ii~ii~iii~•!~iiiiiiii! < •iiiiiiiiii~ i~i~! •..... .. ,•,! • ii

'• iiiiiiiii~ iiiiliii • ,~li> i• i:i•,< i~• < :ii:< :< iiiii!~ii•i 'ii~iiiiiiii'~i< ??% ! i?k i ,•iii~ i'• ••••i

% !!iiiiiiiiiiiiii~!!!~i~iii~i•iiiii•,iii~ < < :~ iiiiiiiii•!!0A

lii~iiii•:: . . .•i~iiiii!!ii!iii~i .. .. .. .... .. .. . .. . ............... . ..... . . .. .. .. .. .. . .......................... ............... ........ .......................... ............. ... ....i

i~ ~ i Xi

nii

FIGURE 20. Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Reg. lat. 12, fol. 62, initial Q to Psalm 51 (photo: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana).

Vat. Reg. lat. 12, fol. 62), a manuscript usually assigned to the second quarter of the eleventh century (Fig. 20).88 Al- though it is not expressly identified as an image of the Virgin, the explanatory inscription "oliva fructifera" leaves little doubt that the crowned female figure with her feet on a dragon forming the tail of the Q represents the Virgin as Queen of Heaven. It was not until the first half of the twelfth century, however, that images of the Virgin became more frequent in psalters. The Shaftesbury Psalter (London, Brit- ish Library, MS Lansdowne 383), usually dated to the years between 1130 and 1140, contains on fol. 165v a full-page miniature of the Virgin and Child facing the beginning of a series of prayers dedicated to the Virgin (Fig. 21).89 As the miniature of St. Michael on fol. 168v clearly reveals, this image formed part of a series of full-page miniatures illustrating the principal prayers of the manuscript.90 The image

.... ..........

FIGURE 21. London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 383, fol. 165v, Virgin and Child (photo: Conway Library).

of the Virgin and Child in the Queen Melisende Psalter falls into the same category, since it also forms part of a series of miniatures illustrating the prayers of the manuscript. Like eight other images in this psalter, each illustrating a prayer to one specific saint, the image of the Virgin is placed immediately above the prayer dedicated to her on fol. 202v.91

Despite this trend, it was not before the middle of the twelfth century that Marian images came to be included in the prefatory picture cycle of an English psalter. Judging from the surviving manuscripts, the Winchester Psalter with its puzzling series of Marian infancy scenes92 and its Byzantine Diptych must be regarded as the first extant English psalter with a narrative cycle of purely Marian images. All earlier cycles93 were restricted to Davidic and Christological scenes, and images of the Virgin that are either a matter of word illustration (Bury Psalter), or intended to illustrate a specific

37



NT ........... 1.4

AO

Zz? ........... . .......... Poo ."

01

w-r-jr-m- wr pe .... . .. .. .. . .

..

Re ol

MEN

/* ovOr

4 MM

Am.

le.

lip

.......... .... mi

FIGURE 22. Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter U.3.2, fol. 19v, Burial and Assumption of the Virgin (photo: University of Glasgow Library).

Marian prayer as in the Shaftesbury and Queen Melisende Psalters.

The so-called York Psalter (Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter U. 3.2) of ca. 1170 is the only other extant En- glish psalter with a lengthy sequence of purely Marian images in its prefatory picture cycle. Following immediately after a Christ cycle which ends with a Majesty on fol. 16, the short Marian cycle (fols. 17v-19v) is exclusively devoted to

the story of the Virgin's death and assumption into heaven (Fig. 22).94 Later in the century a full-page miniature representing the entombment and coronation of the Virgin in two registers can be found in the prefatory picture cycle of the French Ingeborg Psalter (Chantilly, Mus6e Cond6, MS lat. 1695, fol. 34v), a manuscript which betrays a close connection with the English tradition of psalter illumination.95 The inclusion of Marian scenes in the picture cycle of psalters can perhaps be explained by the development of Mariology in late eleventh- and early twelfth-century France and England.

The Cult of the Virgin and the Byzantine Diptych

As a highly influential figure in the monastic reform movement, St. Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984, was instrumental in establishing the cult of the Virgin in tenth-century England. He also laid the foundations for Win- chester to become an important center of Marian worship.96 Images like the already mentioned Death of the Virgin in St. Ethelwold's Benedictional or the famous Winchester Quin- ity97 (London, British Library, MS Cotton Titus D. XXVII, fol. 75v) clearly betray the strong impact of the new theological climate on Winchester artists. It was, however, not before the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries that the cult of the Virgin reached its peak with the formal reintroduction of the feast of the immaculate conception in 1129.98 At that time, new impulses for the rise of the cult came not from Winchester but from Canterbury, where St. Anselm's Liber Meditationum et Orationum prepared the ground for a decidedly personal and highly subjective devotion to the Virgin.99 It was St. Anselm who especially stressed the importance of the Virgin as an intercessor and advocate for the redemption and salvation of mankind,100 and his disciple and biographer Eadmer is said to have been the first to address her explicitly as mediatrix, mediator between God and man.101 Like Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster and author of a Sermo de con- ceptione sanctae Mariae, Eadmer emerged as an ardent de- fender of the feast of the Virgin's immaculate conception when the theological controversy arose in the 1120s.102

As Kristine Haney has pointed out, the notion of the immaculate conception was at that time closely connected with the Virgin's corporeal assumption into heaven.103 Herbert of Losinga, first bishop of Norwich from 1091 to 1119, especially stressed

that the most blessed Virgin Mary, made immortal both in body and soul, sits at the right hand of God with her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, being the mother of penitents and the most effectual intercessor for our sins with her most gracious Son.104

The Virgin's already important role in early eleventh-century theology as the most powerful intercessor is apparent in the works of Fulbert of Chartres, bishop from 1006 to 1028,

38



who in his Oratio ad sanctam Mariam matrem Domini ex-

plicitly addressed the Virgin as an intercessor at the Last

Judgment:

Holy and immaculate, ever virgin MARY, receive me in

your faith, and on the Day of Judgment commend me unto your only son our Lord Jesus Christ, my judge and

advocate.105

The strong belief in the Virgin's intercessory power was firmly established a century later when Eadmer of Canterbury in his Liber de excellentia beatae Mariae declared:

Nothing is more useful-after God-nothing more salu- tary than the mediation of the Virgin's faithful love... Often we see and hear that many men in danger remember the name of this good Mary, and immediately all the evil of the danger goes away. And sometimes salvation comes more quickly when her name is remembered than when the name of the Lord Jesus, her only son is invoked.106

Because the Virgin's intercession on the day of judgment was regarded as a necessity for the salvation of man from the early eleventh century on, the wish to include Marian images in a picture cycle of the psalter, the major prayer-book in the middle ages, is nearly self-explanatory.107 The Byzantine images in the Winchester Psalter were obviously part of this movement. In thematic and chronological sequence, they illustrate those two major tenets of Marian doctrine which made the Virgin the most powerful intercessor: her victory over death and assumption into heaven, and her unique status as

queen at the zenith of the heavenly hierarchy.108 In addition to the miniatures, a series of nine consecu-

tive prayers at the end of the manuscript provides further evidence that the Byzantine Diptych must be understood in the context of an evolving devotion to the Virgin in twelfth- century England. Beginning with a short prayer addressing God as the Omnipotens Deus on fol. 134, the second prayer already introduces the Virgin as a central figure of devotion:

God, searcher of hearts, hear the praises and prayers which I offer in honor and commemoration of the blessed mother of God, Mary ever virgin, and of all the saints.109

Interestingly, the following eight prayers are all dedicated to the Virgin. She is addressed not only as auxiliatrix et salva- trix but also as consolatio post deum, and she is asked for

help in all kind of distress and trouble:

Preserve me, O most pious Lady, as your servant. And defend me from all the snares of all my enemies. And from all adversities and evil. And from sudden and eternal

death."i0

The style of the prayers and their highly personal tone suggest the author's close familiarity with the ideas of St. Anselm

and his school."' Moreover, the Virgin is explicitly asked for intercession on behalf of the speaker in several instances:

Therefore, help me holy mother of God so that through your intercession, the Lord may see my affliction because my enemy has risen against me. ..112

... in your most pious faith and true piety render account and mercifully intercede for me

...113.

. pray for me to the Lord your God and son . . .114

I beseech you Lady full of every piety, intercede for us before our redeemer."5

The nine Marian prayers not only provide evidence for the increasing importance of the Virgin as the central figure of private devotion in twelfth-century England; they also leave no doubt that the idea of the Virgin's intercession and mediation with God was of specific importance to the owner of the manuscript.116 The close connection between the Mar- ian images in the Winchester Psalter and contemporary devotional practice is obvious. But since the Marian diptych forms an opening in the prefatory miniature cycle of the manuscript and not an illustration opposite a prayer to the Virgin, the question arises how these two Marian images were used in daily devotional practice. If the extensive narrative cycle of Christ images was meant both to make visible the implicit typological meaning of the psalms and to lead the reader, while turning the pages, to a better understanding of the devotional relevance of events in Christ's life, the "Byzantine" images may well have been an invitation to stop and meditate upon the Virgin's role as advocate for the salvation of man before facing the terrifying Last Judgment scenes on the following pages.17 However, their function as devotional images does not necessarily explain their close adherence to Byzantine iconography and style. The hieratic image of the Virgin in the Shaftesbury Psalter, with a sup- plicant kneeling in front of her, shows how Romanesque miniatures could fulfil the need for devotional images just as well as Byzantine-looking representations. How should the artist's use of Byzantine iconographic formulas then be explained? As the unprecedented iconography of the Virgin's burial and assumption in the York Psalter suggests, the most likely explanation is that the Winchester artist borrowed from the Byzantine iconographic tradition because there was not

yet a standard western formula for the representation of the

Virgin's death and assumption. His diptych-like creation made a thoughtful transition from the Christ scenes to the Last

Judgment cycle, and his images embodied the idea of the

Virgin's role as intercessor for the redemption and salvation of man. The fact that the pictorial formula of the Byzantine Diptych appears to have had no effect on English artists in later years is an indication of the private nature of the book and its inaccessibility to most potential viewers.

39



NOTES

* This article was adapted from my M.A. thesis, "The Byzantine Dip- tych in the Winchester Psalter. A Reconsideration" (University of Lon- don, 1994). I am particularly indebted to Dr. John Lowden of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, for his help and most valuable advice with this paper. I would like to thank Professor Dr. Barbara Schellewald of the University of Bonn for her help on various points of difficulty. Thanks are also due to Professor Dr. Ursula Nilgen of the University of Munich for a discussion of the results of my M.A. thesis in September 1994. Professor Nilgen, who has prepared a separate study on the Byzantine Diptych ("Byzantinismen im westlichen Hoch- mittelalter. Das 'byzantinische Diptychon' im Winchester Psalter," to be published in Forschungen zur byzantinischen Kunst. Festschrift fiir Marcell Restle zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. B. Borkopp and T. Steppan (Stuttgart, 1998) [in press]), exchanged typescripts with me in May 1997. A shorter version of my paper was given at the 1995 Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500 in Cambridge, England.

1. E Wormald, The Winchester Psalter (London, 1973); K. E. Haney, The Winchester Psalter: An Iconographic Study (Leicester, 1986).

2. Unfortunately the original arrangement of the quires has not survived. The full-page miniatures, originally facing one another on the verso of one and the recto of the following leaf, have been cut apart and mounted as a series of 38 rectos.

3. The text of the psalms shows the combined three- and eight-fold divi- sion. However, only the initials to Psalms 1, 26 and 101 are executed as pen drawings in a brownish ink.

4. The first serious attempt to determine the provenance of the Winches- ter Psalter was undertaken as early as 1873 by E. A. Bond and E. M. Thompson. Because of a prayer addressed to St. Swithun and especially mentioning his house, they came to the conclusion that the Psalter had to have been written at St. Swithun's priory in Winchester. See E. A. Bond and E. M. Thompson, The Paleographical Society. Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions (London, 1873-1883), s. I, III, P1. 124.

5. C. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190 (Survey of

Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, III) (London, 1975), No. 78.

6. C. Crown, "Iconographic Sources and Themes of the Virgin Mary, Kingship and Law" (Dissertation, Washington University, 1976).

7. K. E. Haney, "The Psalter of Henry of Blois. A Study in Romanesque Manuscript Illumination" (Dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York, 1978).

8. Eadem, "The Provenance of the Psalter of Henry of Blois," Manu- scripta, XXIV (1980), 40-44; eadem, "The Paint Surfaces in the Psalter of Henry of Blois," British Library Journal, VII (1981), 149- 157; eadem, "The Immaculate Imagery in the Winchester Psalter," Gesta, XX (1981), 111-117.

9. M. Witzling, "An Archaeological Investigation of the Winchester Psalter" (Dissertation, Cornell University, 1978); eadem, "An Archae- ological Reconstruction of a Previous State of the Winchester Psalter," Gesta, XVII (1978), 28-35; eadem, "The Winchester Psalter: A Re-

ordering of its Prefatory Miniatures according to the Scriptural Se-

quence," Gesta, XXIII (1984), 17-24; G. Henderson, "'Abraham Genuit Isaac': Transitions from the Old Testament to the New Testament in the

Prefatory Illustrations of Some 12th-Century English Psalters," Gesta, XXVI (1987), 127-139.

10. Haney, The Winchester Psalter.

11. The term "Byzantine Diptych" first appeared in Wormald's monograph on the Winchester Psalter of 1973, and reflects not only the diptych- like appearance of the original opening, but also his conjectures about

a possible Byzantine diptych which may have served as its model. Wormald, The Winchester Psalter, 87-91.

12. The Byzantine Diptych in the Winchester Psalter is the only example of a direct influence of Byzantine art found in an English book illuminated around 1150.

13. For the original sequence of miniatures, see Wormald, The Winchester Psalter, Pls. 31-34.

14. Ibid., 69.

15. Witzling, "Archaeological Reconstruction," 29-31.

16. While the miniature on fol. 30 is laid out more carefully, the measurements of the miniature on fol. 29 are distorted (bottom line: 17.7 cm; top line: 17.5 cm; left margin: 27.2 cm; right margin: 26.8 cm).

17. It does not seem, however, that the blue of the background has been

scraped or washed off for the sake of the pigment, as Eric Millar suggested for all of the miniatures in the prefatory cycle. E. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the 10th to the 13th Century (Paris, 1926), 84.

18. The term assumptio can be found as early as the late eighth century in connection with the feast of the Virgin's death. It was, however, only during the tenth century that the feast was consistently called As- sumptio Beatae Mariae Virginis. Before the tenth century the feast was usually known as dormitio, depositio, or pausatio. See G. Schiller, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, IV, pt. 2 (Giitersloh, 1980), 89-90.

19. An examination of the French inscriptions by Ian Short, which was included in Haney's 1986 study, led to a date of "ca. 1150" with a possible range of about twenty years on either side. See Haney, The Winchester Psalter, 13-14 and 130 (Appendix B).

20. A reference to the Virgin's later status as Queen of Heaven?

21. Bond and Thompson, Paleographical Society, P1. 124.

22. Haney, The Winchester Psalter, 4 and 31.

23. Haney, "Paint Surfaces," 149-157.

24. Ibid., 150 and 157.

25. Haney, The Winchester Psalter, 132-133 (Appendix D).

26. For further information on the textual tradition of the apocryphal account and the different existing versions, see M. Jugie, La mort et

lassomption de la Sainte Vierge. Etudes historico-doctrinale (Rome, 1944); A. Wenger, Lassomption de la T S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siecle. Etudes et documents (Paris, 1955). For a short summary, see Schiller, Ikonographie, 83-92.

27. (Pseudo-)Melito of Sardis, Liber de transitu Virginis Mariae, ed.

Migne, PG, V, 1231-1240.

28. See T. S. R. Boase, The York Psalter (London, 1962), 9-14.

29. The popularity of Byzantine koimesis scenes in Ottonian Germany is attested by several manuscripts illuminated in the scriptoria of Priim, e.g., an Antiphonary in Paris (BibliothIque Nationale, MS lat. 9448, fol. 60v), and Reichenau, e.g., a Pericopes Book in Wolfenbdttel (Herzog- August-Bibliothek, MS 84.5 Aug. 20, fol. 79v), a Lectionary in Hil-

desheim (Dombibliothek, Cod. 688, fol. 76v), and a Sacramentary in Paris (Bibliothbque Nationale, MS lat. 18005, fol. 118v). For further

information, see H. Mayr-Harting, Ottonian Book Illumination (Lon- don, 1991), II, 139-156, Figs. 86, 87 and P1. XIV. See also the excellent article by R. Kahsnitz, "Koimesis-dormitio-assumptio. Byzantinisches und Antikes in den Miniaturen der Liuthargruppe," in Florilegium in

honorem Carl Nordenfalk, ed. P. Bjurstrim, N.-G. Hikby, F Mhtherich

(Stockholm, 1987), 91-122, with photographs (Figs. 10 and 11) of the two Byzantine ivories set into the Ottonian book covers.

40



30. See A. Goldschmidt and K. Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbein- skulpturen des X.-XIII. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1930-1934), Nos. 109, 110, 112, 116e, 195, 202, 206, and 209. Although there are numerous comparable Byzantine ivories dating from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, there is only one example, No. 112, showing an apos- tle on the right side of the Virgin's bed raising his hand in a gesture of

prayer. This figure can also be found in the Winchester miniature.

31. Although pre-iconoclastic examples of Byzantine koimesis scenes have not survived, it is generally assumed that images of the death of the

Virgin emerged shortly after the feast of the koimesis tes hagias Theo- tokou was established in Jerusalem in the fifth century. See Schiller, Ikonographie, 92-95.

32. For the different stages of the modified koimesis scene, see Kahsnitz, "Koimesis-dormitio-assumptio," Figs. 2 and 4-9.

33. In Anglo-Saxon England the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold (London, British Library, MS Add. 49598, fol. 102v) and the related Benedic- tional of Archbishop Robert (Rouen, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS Y 7 [MS 369], fol. 54v), both written and illuminated in Winchester about 980, provide the earliest western examples of the subject, inserted to illustrate the Benedictional's text for the Assumption. Neither

image shows any evidence of the direct use of a Byzantine model. See T. H. Ohlgren, Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts. An

Iconographic Catalogue c. 625-1100 (New York, 1986), 111-112. For the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold see R. Deshman, The Benedictional

of Aethelwold (Princeton, 1995).

34. Wormald, The Winchester Psalter, 88.

35. Crown, "Archaeological Investigation," 121, with reference to the miniatures in the so-called York Psalter (Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter U.2.3); Schiller, Ikonographie, Fig. 622.

36. Schiller, Ikonographie, Figs. 601, 618, 622 (upper register).

37. Ibid., Figs. 596 and 598. Some even earlier examples show the hand of God emerging to crown the departing Virgin. Compare especially the mentioned page in the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, but also the miniature on fol. 60v of the Prtim Antiphonary (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS lat. 9448); ibid., Figs. 604, 607.

38. See U. Nilgen, "Thomas Becket as a Patron of the Arts," Art History, III (1980), 357-374, esp. 363.

39. The similarities between the Lavaudieu wall paintings and the Byzan- tine miniatures in the Winchester Psalter are not restricted to the wavy ground. The fold pattern of the lower part of the Virgin's dress and the hairline of one of the apostles find very close parallels as well. See O. Demus, Romanische Wandmalerei (Munich, 1968), Figs. 149- 150. The same comparison is drawn by Nilgen, "Byzantinismen."

40. Demus, Romanische Wandmalerei, 129-130, Fig. 65; Nilgen, "Byzan- tinismen."

41. For example, the sixth-century icon with the Virgin between St. Theo- dore and St. George (Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery) and the Madonna della Clemenza, dated by some to the time of Pope John VII, 705-707 (Rome, Santa Maria in Trastevere). See E Rademacher, Die

Regina Angelorum in der Kunst des friihen Mittelalters (Dtisseldorf, 1972), Figs. 16, 22.

42. The sixth-century Adoration of the Magi (Ravenna, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo); Rademacher, Regina Angelorum, Fig. 19.

43. Right panel of an ivory diptych, dated about the middle of the sixth

century (Berlin, Skulpturensammlung der Staatlichen Museen); Rade-

macher, Regina Angelorum, Fig. 8.

44. H. Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of the Image before the Era of Art (Chicago, 1994), 32-36.

45. John of Damascus, Homilia, V, ed. Migne, PG, XCVI, 647-662, esp. 654, and Homilia, VIII, ed. Migne, ibid., 699-722, esp. 718.

46. Andrew of Crete, Oratio, XIII, ed. Migne, PG, XCVII, 1071-1090, esp. 1078.

47. Although examples of this type are observable in Rome as early as the sixth century, the title "Maria Regina" first appears on a Carolingian fresco at Santa Maria Antiqua. See U. Nilgen, "Maria Regina-ein politischer Kultbildtypus?" Rimisches Jahrbuch, XIX (1981), 3-33, esp. 5-6 with bibliography in n. 8; J. Osborne, "The Atrium of S. Maria An-

tiqua, Rome: A History in Art," PBSR, LV (1987), 186-223, esp. 195.

48. Contrast, for instance, the Madonna della Clemenza, the apse mosaic of Santa Maria in Trastevere, or the apse mosaic of Santa Maria

Maggiore.

49. As Ursula Nilgen most recently pointed out, the labara carried by the

angels in the Winchester miniature do not directly derive from contem-

porary Byzantine art, but have the form of antique or late antique vex- illa. Drawing a direct connection to Henry of Blois's recorded interest in the purchase of antique statues during his stay in Rome in 1149/50, Nilgen suggested that Henry himself might have corrected the Byzan- tine insignia according to their antique prototypes. At the same time she ruled out an authentic Byzantine model for this image because of the pseudo-Byzantine loroi. See Nilgen, "Byzantinismen." As will be shown further below, the "misapprehensions" and "corrections" in this

image might best be explained by the artist's use of sketches after

drawings from authentic Byzantine works. Working from sketches of which he did not understand the details, he was, I would suggest, forced to improvise and tried to employ his knowledge of Italo-

Byzantine (and perhaps even antique) art to make his pictures look as

Byzantine as possible.

50. E Saxl and R. Wittkower, British Art and the Mediterranean (London, 1943), 24; Wormald, The Winchester Psalter, 87, Figs. 86 and 87.

51. Gertrud Schiller calls this type "Nebenform der Maria Orans"; Ikono- graphie, 25.

52. Inv. Nr. A.1-1927. Carrying an inscription petitioning the Virgin for help in the name of Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, this tondo can be assigned to the years between 1078 and 1081. See London, British Museum, Byzantium. Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture from Brit- ish Collections (London, 1994), ed. D. Buckton, No. 171, p. 158; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Glory of Byzantium (New York, 1997), ed. H. C. Evans and W. D. Wixom, No. 130, pp. 176-177.

53. Schiller, Ikonographie, Fig. 437.

54. Ibid., 25.

55. For example, Marienlexikon, ed. R. Bauemner and L. Scheffczyk (St. Ottilien, 1988-1993), V, 12; Lexikon des Mittelalters (Munich, 1980-), VI, 257. In addition to the apse mosaic at Murano, this specific type of the Virgin is also found in the twelfth-century Last Judg- ment mosaic at Torcello and in a thirteenth-century mosaic panel (west arm, side aisle) in San Marco in Venice. See O. Demus, The Mosaics of San Marco in Venice (Chicago, 1984), II, P1. 18.

56. The miniatures in the Byzantine manuscripts are almost identical but differ in size. It was Kristine Haney who first referred to the miniatures of Paris grec 1208 in connection with the enthroned Virgin in the Winchester Psalter, The Winchester

Psalter, 125.

57. In content this miniature is identical with Paris grec 1208, fol. 66v.

58. Paris, Bibliothbque Nationale, D~partement des manuscrits, Evangiles avec peintures byzantines du XIe sidcle (Reproduction des 361 miniatures du manuscrit grec 74 de la Bibliothbque Nationale), 2 vols. (Paris, 1908).

41



59. J. R. Martin, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus (Studies in Manuscript Illumination, V) (Princeton, 1954). The same

comparison is drawn by Nilgen, "Byzantinismen."

60. See N. Thierry, "Le jugement dernier d'Axtala. Rapport prdliminaire," Bedi Kartlisa, XL (1982), 147-185, and A. Lidov, The Mural Paint-

ings of Akhtala (Moscow, 1991), 59-67.

61. The Last Judgment in the church of Timotesubani (Georgia) shows a

composition almost identical to the one in Akthala. See E. Privalova, La peinture murale de Timothlisoubani (russ.) (Tiblissi, 1980), Fig. 40. I am most grateful to Dr. A. Eastmond who kindly drew my attention to this example.

62. The monastery of Bachkovo, better known as the monastery of Petrit- zos, was founded by the Georgian Gregorios Pakurianos in 1083, but the style of the painting points towards a later date. For good color

photographs see A. Cutler and J.-M. Spieser, Das mittelalterliche Byz- anz 725-1204 (Munich, 1996), Figs. 176, 179.

63. Referring to the late twelfth-century bronze doors of Pisa Cathedral as the first example of a similar composition in the west, Kristine Haney claimed that there were "no Western examples which predate the Win- chester scene." Haney, The Winchester Psalter, 125. For illustrations, see A. Boeckler, Die Bronzetiiren des Bonanus von Pisa und des Bar- isanus von Trani (Berlin, 1953), Figs. 28, 31, 91, 93.

64. The iconographic heritage of this unusual image of the enthroned Vir-

gin with her hands raised in front of her chest has not been properly identified. Since there was not yet a standard formula for the feast of the Virgin's nativity in Ottonian times, scholars have tried to explain the miniature either in the context of her assumption, comparing it with images of the Virgin in the traditional orans pose, or as an icon-

ographic adaptation from earlier images of Christ in Majesty. As will be shown below, the Byzantine type of the interceding Virgin in Para- dise, from which the miniature in Prum ultimately derives, is a fitting image for the text of the sequences which praise the Virgin as porta perpetua and regina coelorum. For the most recent discussion of the miniature, see C. HOhl, Ottonische Buchmalerei in Priim (Europdiische Hochschulschriften, s. XXVIII, Art History, 252) (Frankfurt, 1996), 301-307. For illustrations, see Schiller, Ikonographie, Figs. 605, 607.

65. Haney, The Winchester Psalter, 4, 70.

66. Although we know rather little about the medieval artist's ability to ap- ply different stylistic modes in his work, the Byzantine Diptych varies so much in style and technique from the other miniatures in the manu-

script that it cannot be explained as the product of the same artist

working in a different mode in order to make a specific point. For this

question see especially T. A. Heslop, "Romanesque Painting and So- cial Distinction: The Magi and the Shepherds," in England in the

Twelfth Century (Proceedings of the 1988 Harlaxton Symposion), ed. D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1990), 137-141.

67. C. M. Kauffmann, "The Bury Bible," JWCI, XXIX (1966), 60-81; idem, Romanesque Manuscripts, No. 56.

68. M. Gibson, T. A. Heslop, R. W. Pfaff, The Eadwine Psalter. Text, Im-

age, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury (University Park, 1992); Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, No. 68. Professor Ursula Nilgen kindly drew my attention to the close stylistic similarities between the Byzantine miniatures and the Eadwine portrait.

69. Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Heinrich der Lbwe und seine Zeit (Munich, 1995), ed. J. Luckhardt and E Niehoff, D 95, 297- 299, with reference to earlier publications. See also Kauffmann, Ro-

manesque Manuscripts, No. 96.

70. For a discussion of the date of the Eadwine portrait and its connection with the Copenhagen Psalter, see Gibson, Heslop, Pfaff, The Eadwine Psalter, 178-185; G. Zarnecki, "The Eadwine Portrait," in Etudes

d'art medijval offertes a Louis Grodecki, ed. S. M. Crosby, A. Chastel, A. Prache, and A. Chatelet (Paris, 1981), 93-98.

71. E Wormald, "Continental Influence on English Medieval Illumination," in Fourth International Congress of Bibliophiles (London, 1967), 12.

72. The swaddling clothes of the Virgin's soul are usually white. The Vir- gin's veil is light blue in one half of the Byzantine Diptych and green in the other.

73. It seems highly unlikely that an artist trying to create Byzantine-like images would not have felt bound by the colors used in a painted Byz- antine model. Another detail supports the view that the artist worked from drawings: the big curl of hair visible on the neck of each guard- ing angel is best explained as a misapprehension of the flying ribbons of the diadem which is never omitted in genuine Byzantine representations. All such mistakes-or better, misapprehensions of Byzantine costume-make it plausible to think that the artist worked from drawings or rough sketches.

74. The term "motif book" was introduced by Ernst Kitzinger to designate an artist's haphazard collection of drawings of figures, occasional

groups and entire compositions; The Mosaics of Monreale (Palermo, 1960), 63, 84.

75. The Glory of Byzantium, No. 319, pp. 482-484 with references to earlier publications.

76. Ibid., No. 318, p. 482.

77. For further information on medieval model books, see R. W. Scheller, A Survey of Medieval Model Books (Haarlem, 1963); H. Buchthal, The "Musterbuch" of Wolfenbiittel and its Position in the Art of the Thir- teenth Century (Vienna, 1979); R. W. Scheller, Exemplum: Model- book Drawing and the Practice of Artistic Transmission in the Middle Ages (ca. 900-ca. 1470) (Amsterdam, 1995).

78. O. Demus, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily (London, 1949), 443-454, esp. 449-450.

79. Leo of Ostia, Chronicon Casinense, III, 27, ed. H. Hoffmann, MGH SS, XXXIV, 396.

80. H. R. Hahnloser, "Magistra latinitas und peritia greca," in Festschrift fiir Herbert von Einem (Berlin, 1965), 77-93, esp. 77-83; M. E. Frazer, "Church Doors and the Gates of Paradise. Byzantine Bronze Doors in Italy," DOP, XXVII (1973), 147-162; H. Bloch, "Origin and Fate of the Bronze Doors of Abbot Desiderius of Monte Cassino," DOP, XLI (1987), 89-102; U. Mende, Bronzetiiren des Mittelalters: 800-1200, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1994), 41-47.

81. See most recently J. Folda, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098-1187 (Cambridge, MA, 1995) and B. Zeitler, "Perceptions of the Levant: Studies in the Arts of the Latin East" (Dissertation, University of London, 1992).

82. H. Buchthal, Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, 1957), esp. chap. I.

83. K. Weitzmann, "Icon Painting in the Crusader Kingdom," DOP, XX (1966), 51-83.

84. O. Demus, Byzantine Art and the West (London, 1970), 160-161.

85. It is a striking fact that the Queen Melisende Psalter contains a calen-

dar (fols. 13v-19) which strongly suggests a Winchester connection. See Buchthal, Miniature Painting, 122-123.

86. The Glory of Byzantium, No. 312, p. 475.

87. The idea, however, that the open porphyry sarcophagus in the Win-

chester miniature forms a direct reference to the pilgrimage site at the

foot of the Mount of Olives offers an interesting explanation for this

unusual iconography. The church of the Virgin's empty tomb in the

valley of Jehoshaphat was rebuilt by Queen Melisende probably around

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the middle of the twelfth century, and became her burial place when she died in 1161; Folda, The Art of the Crusaders, 119-174, esp. 133, 151. For a short history of the church of St. Mary in the valley of

Jehoshaphat, see H. E. Mayer, "Zur Geschichte des Klosters S. Maria im Tal Josaphat," in Bistiimer, Kl5ster und Stifte im KOnigreich Jeru- salem (Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica, XXVI) (Stutt- gart, 1977), 258-371.

88. E. Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, 900-1066 (Survey of Manu- scripts Illuminated in the British Isles, II) (London, 1976), No. 84.

89. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, No. 48.

90. The opening page of the prayer to St. Lambert is now missing and may well have contained a similar image; see fols. 171v-172.

91. Buchthal, Miniature Painting, 139-140.

92. Haney, "Immaculate Imagery," 111-117.

93. For example, in the eleventh-century Tiberius Psalter (London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius C. VI) (for bibliography, see n. 107), and the St. Albans Psalter (Hildesheim, St. Godehard), of about 1120- 1130. See O. Picht, C. R. Dodwell, E Wormald, The St. Albans Psalter (London, 1960); Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, No. 29.

94. Boase, The York Psalter; Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, No. 95.

95. E Deuchler, Der Ingeborgpsalter (Berlin, 1967), reprinted as the Comn- mentarium to the facsimile, Codices selecti, LXXX (Graz, 1985).

96. H. Barre, Prieres anciennes de l'Occident a la mere du Sauveur (Paris, 1963), 132-143.

97. See E. H. Kantorowicz, "The Quinity of Winchester," AB, XXIX (1947), 73-85; Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, No. 77.

98. E. Bishop, "On the Origins of the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary," in Liturgica Historica (Oxford, 1918), 238-249.

99. Anselm of Canterbury, Orationes et Meditationes, ed. E S. Schmitt, Sancti Anselmi Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi Opera Omnia (Edinburgh, 1946-1961), III, 1-91. For an English translation, The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm (Harmondsworth, 1979). See also R. W. Southern, Saint Anselm. A Portrait in a Landscape (Cambridge, 1990), esp. 106-109.

100. Anselm of Canterbury, Orationes et Meditationes, ed. Schmitt, 13-25.

101. Eadmer of Canterbury, Liber de Excellentia Beatae Mariae, ed. Migne, PL, CLIX, 575. See H. Coathalem, Le paralldlisme entre la Sainte Vierge et l'Eglise dans la tradition latine jusqu' a la fin du XIIe siecle (Rome, 1954), 77, n. 81; Southern, Saint Anselm, 430-436. In the Byzantine east the Virgin's role as a mediator between God and man was already established. In an early twelfth-century charter the Virgin is addressed: "You who are full of grace in God's eyes, you who transcend all the seeing and understanding and overcome the limits of nature, you who are the mediator [mesitis] between God and men"; quoted after Belting, Likeness and Presence, 520. See also P. Gautier, "Le typikon de la Theotokos Kecharit6m6ne," Revue des etudes byzantines, XLIII (1985), 25.

102. For more information about this controversy see Haney, The Winches- ter Psalter, 36-46.

103. Ibid., 43-46.

104. Herbert of Losinga, Sermo XIII. De Assumptione beatissimae Virginis Mariae, ed. E. M. Goulburn and H. Symonds, The Life, Letters and Sermons of Bishop Herbert de Losinga (Oxford, 1878), II, 352-353: "et anima et corpore immortalis facta. cum filio suo domino nostro ihesu christo ad dextris residet dei; mater penitentium. et interventrix efficacissima pro peccatis nostris apud clementissimum filium suum."

See also H. Barrd, "La croyance 'a l'assomption corporelle en occident de 750 'a 1150 environs," Etudes Mariales, VII (1949), 63-124, esp. 102-103.

105. Fulbert of Chartres, Oratio domini Fulberti Kartonensis episcopi ad sanctam Mariam matrem Domini (Dijon, Bibliothbque Municipale, MS 30, fols. 141-143). See Barre, Prieres, 156: "Sancta et immacu- lata, perpetua uirgo MARIA, suscipe me in tua fide, et in die iudicii unico filio tuo domino nostro Ihesu Christo, iudici et advocato meo, reconsigna."

106. Eadmer of Canterbury, Liber de Excellentia Beatae Mariae, ed. Migne, PL, CLIX, 570: "Nihil enim utilius post Deum memoria matris Dei, nihil salutarius meditatione pii amoris ... Saepe suis periculis re- cordari nominis iustius bonae Mariae, et omnis periculi malum illico evasisse. Velociorque est nonnunquam salus memorato nomine ejus quam invocato nomine Domini Jesu unici filii ejus." English translation by T. McElvoy, quoted after Crown, "Iconographic Sources," 119.

107. For the earlier tradition of prefacing the psalter with Davidic and Chris- tological images and the crucial role of Christ in eleventh-century devotional practice, see K. Openshaw, "The Battle between Christ and Satan in the Tiberius Psalter," JWCI, LII (1989), 15-33; eadem, "Weapons in the Daily Battle: Images of the Conquest of Evil in the Early Medieval Psalter," AB, LXXV (1993), 19-38.

108. Kristine Haney was the first to stress that "the placement of the two illustrations of the Virgin as an intercessor must also be viewed in re- lation to the extensive judgement cycle that follows," The Winchester Psalter, 45.

109. Prayer II, fol. 134: "Scrutator cordium deus exaudi laudes et orationes quas ego in honore et commemoratione beate dei genitricis marie sem- per uirginis et omnium sanctorum profero."

110. Prayer III, fol. 134v: "Conserua me o piissima domina ut tuum famu- lum. et defende ab omnibus insidiis omnium inimicorum. et ab omnibus adversitatibus et malis. et a subitanea et eterna morte."

111. A mid twelfth-century psalter most probably written at St. Swithun's Priory in Winchester (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS Vit. 23-8) contains the Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm; see Kauffmann, Ro- manesque Manuscripts, No. 77, pp. 104-105. Another twelfth-century Winchester psalter preserved in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (MS Auct. D. 2.6) was bound with St. Anselm's Prayers and Meditations prior to ca. 1200; ibid., Nos. 71, 75. I am very grateful to Peter Kidd who drew my attention to these manuscripts.

112. Prayer IV, fol. 135: "Auxiliare igitur mihi sancta dei genitrix ut munere tue intercessionis uideat dominus afflictionem meam quoniam erectus est inimicus meus."

113. Prayer V, fol. 135: ".... in tua piissima fide et uera pietate per me rationem redde. misericorditerque intercede."

114. Prayer VI, fol. 135: ".. ora pro me ad dominum deum tuum et filium."

115. Prayer VIII, fol. 135v: "Deprecor te domina omni pietate plenissima intercede pro nobis ante illius redemptoris nostri conspectum."

116. Because of the bilingual text of the Psalter Ursula Nilgen has ex- pressed doubts about its ownership by Henry of Blois. As a possible candidate she suggested a young member of the-royal family, namely Eustache, the son of King Stephen and nephew of Henry; "English Romanesque Art 1066-1200," Kunstchronik, XXXVII (1984), 208; eadem, "Byzantinismen."

117. In view of the icon-like appearance of the miniatures, Kristine Haney first proposed their function as "votive" images, objects of private meditation and devotion; The Winchester Psalter, 44-46.

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The So-Called Byzantine Diptych in the Winchester Psalter, British Library, MS Cotton Nero C. IV

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