Our Lady on Saturday: Catherine of Cleaves: Hours of the Virgin Matins
Our Lady on Saturday: Catherine of Cleaves: Hours of the Virgin Matins
The crowned Virgin stands on an inverted silver
crescent moon, holding her Child and an ink bottle into which He dips His pen.
Across His lap lies an illegible scroll, and an empty scroll case hangs over
the arm of the Virgin. Both figures, encompassed by a gold mandorla, are placed
within a shallow chapel, possibly Catherine's own, surmounted by flying
buttresses, crenelations, two turrets with music-making angels and, in the
central niche, a statue in a gesture of benediction, holding a gold object (a
church?) in its other arm. The statue may represent Saint Nicholas who was
patron saint of the castle chapel at Cleves. Beneath the statue hangs a
heraldic shield å bouche, Barry of eight argent and sable. Catherine kneels at
the Virgin's right with an open book and a banderole inscribed O mater dei
memento mei. In the border are the arms of Catherine as Duchess of Guelders
and those of four of her ancestors. These forebears have been identified by F.
Gorissen as four of Catherine's great-great-grandfathers (Count Diderik of
Cleves, Count Engelbert of Mark, Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, and Duke Ludwig of
Liegnitz); by P. Pieper and D. H. Horstmann as four of her great-grandparents.
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