Friday, July 9, 2021

Our Lady on Saturday: Catherine of Cleaves: Hours of the Virgin Matins


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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