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Object Details
Title:
Initial E: David Playing the Harp
Artist/Maker:
Bute Master (Franco-Flemish, active about 1260 - 1290)
Culture:
French
Place:
Northeastern (illuminated) France Paris (written) France (Place created)
Date:
text and illumination about 1285
Medium:
Tempera colors, gold, and iron gall ink on parchment
Dimensions:
Leaf: 17 × 11.9 cm (6 11/16 × 4 11/16 in.)
In one of the smaller initials in the Bute Psalter, the initial E of Psalm 44, King David sits before a city. Singing as he plays the harp, David appears not only as the author of the psalms but also as their performer. Angels clustered nearby accompany him with musical instruments, including a vielle (fiddle), a buisine (straight trumpet), and percussion.
At the bottom of the page, a queen and her court of noblewomen pray from open books. Through such images, the original owner of this manuscript, most likely a noblewoman, could recognize the importance of her own devotional act of reading the psalms.
Related Works
Exhibitions
Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: Musicians and Instruments in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts (January 25 to April 10, 1994)
- The J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu), January 25 to April 10, 1994
Devotion and Desire: Views of Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (July 25 to October 8, 1995)
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Out-of-Bounds: Marginal Imagery in Illuminated Manuscripts (April 7, 1998 to July 5, 1998)
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- Stedelijk Museum Vander Kelen-Mertens (Leuven), September 21 to December 8, 2002
French Manuscript Illumination in the Middle Ages (January 23 to April 15, 2007)
- The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), January 23 to April 15, 2007
Music for the Masses: Illuminated Choir Books (August 14 to October 28, 2007)
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