Christ and Mary Enthroned in an Initial G, Younger Master of the Gradual

The Younger Master of the Gradual
Christ and Mary Enthroned in an Initial G

1330-35
Manuscript Illumination
Volume 3 of the Wettinger Graduale, MS. MsWettFm 3, fol. 86r
Aargauer Kantonsbibliothek, Aarau, Switzerland

The text on the page contains the beginning of the hymns for the Feast of All Saints. Accordingly, saints of various kinds in the lower half gaze up to Christ and the Virgin Mary, who wear identical crowns and sit amid angels with censers. Their "throne" is merely a cloud-like meander.

At the base of the page, in counterpoint to the saints in Heaven above, a leaping hare is pursued by a greyhound. (See below.) This illustrates a chapter on hares in a group of medieval bestiaries. These describe the hare as "light-footed" but present it in a negative light as representing people who are "inconstant" and "doubleminded" (Dines, 75).

View the entire page of the manuscript.
Read more about images of Ecclesia.
Read more about the hare symbol.

Source: e-Codices