Thursday, March 9, 2023

Miniature knights

All these portrayals we see of knights fighting must be absolute rubbish because knights in armour could literally have only had two or three blows and then they'd have had to sit down to have a cup of tea.
~Mark Strong

For Art Thursday, wee medieval illustrations of knights. For information about medieval manuscript art, check out Smart History (The Center for Public Art History).

Knights in combat
Chroniques de Saint-Denis

Duel of Volker the minstrel and Islan the monk
Unknown author

Detail of the Maastricht Book of Hours
Unknown miniaturist from Liège-Maastricht area, ca. 1300-1325

René d'Anjou Livre des tournois France Provence XVe siècle
Barthélemy d'Eyck

Folio 8 recto from the Aberdeen Bestiary


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2 comments:

Pop said...

Wonderful illustrations and most of them quite strange. Still trying to figure out Detail of the Maastricht Book of Hours and Folio 8 recto from the Aberdeen Bestiary. Hard to figure out what's what in those!

March 16, 2023 at 9:09 AM
Tabatha said...

I feel like maybe the knight is fighting someone who is secretly a beast (a demon?) in the Maastricht Book of Hours. Like, we can tell he's a beast, but the knight thinks he's human. In the Bestiary, it seems like he is trying to tame the creature or lead it somewhere. Doesn't seem wise!

March 16, 2023 at 9:12 AM

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