Thresholds and Boundaries by Jacobs Lynn F.;

Author:Jacobs, Lynn F.;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

There are cases, however, where the narrative elements in the borders and center of manuscripts – rather than constituting essentially separate zones – are actually linked across the thresholds. For example, a book of hours in Blackburn (England) by the Master of Edward IV, fol. 33v (Colorplate VII), depicts the Crucifixion in the central miniature and the Carrying of the Cross, an earlier event in the Passion cycle, across the lower border.28 The relation of center and sides (although in this case, it is technically center and bottom) allows the image to take on more narrative multiplicity, while the contrast of full color (for the miniature) versus demi-grisaille (for the border) establishes a hierarchy between the scenes, subordinating the Carrying of the Cross to the Crucifixion. But the juxtaposition – and in some areas the overlap – of the two events allows for meaningful interrelationships: Christ carries the cross right below the erect cross where he hangs, with the diagonal strut at the base of the cross in the miniature placed at the same angle as the vertical post of the cross that Christ carries in the border below. Also, the sorrowful response of the Virgin in the main miniature, who turns away from the sight of her crucified son, directs her eyes, perhaps reproachfully, toward the riders following Christ to Calvary, who are depicted in the border below her. The executioner behind Christ in the Carrying of the Cross scene appears particularly vile since his body overlaps into the Crucifixion scene and his raised stick almost seems to threaten both Christ in the border ahead of him and the Virgin Mary in the miniature above him.

A similar interplay – and crossing of boundaries – between the narrative in the center and that in the margins is also found in a book of hours in Cambridge associated with the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book (Figure 4.6).29 Fol. 15 depicts the Agony in the Garden in the center, but surrounds this scene with other associated events, starting (at the upper left) with Christ admonishing the sleeping Apostles, then Christ identifying himself to the soldiers causing them to fall to the ground (as recounted in the version by John), Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant, and finally (at the top right) Christ bound by the soldiers.30 Here the spaces of the center and side are continuous at the top left: the skyline of Jerusalem in the background at the left continues uninterrupted across the painted frame around the central scene.31 The landscape at the right, however, is not really continuous, since the tree (at the top left of the right border) appears only outside the frame and does not continue within it; and the profile of the hill outside the frame does not quite align with the top edge of the rock just across the threshold. The spatial disjunctions become more distinct about midway down the central miniature, where the spaces of border and center completely

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