Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Christine de Pizan Presents her Book to Isabeau of Bavaria
  • Creator: Master of the Cité des Dames, miniaturist
  • Description: Christine de Pizan kneels as she presents her book to Isabeau of Bavaria in the queen's bedroom. Tapestries hanging on the walls display the arms of Bavaria and France. The bed linens also display this heraldry. Four ladies-in-waiting sit against the bed while two sit nearer to the queen. A greyhound sleeps at the foot of the bed while a smaller white dog sits next to Isabeau on her couch. Sandra Hindman has shown that this image is an historically accurate document. It presents a physical likeness of Isabeau that corresponds to descriptions found in contemporary literature; the clothing and headpiece that Isabeau wears correspond to items that appear in her household account records. These records also suggest identities for the six women sitting in the queen's bedroom, and they even reveal that the dogs presented in the image were breeds that Isabeau would have owned.
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public Domain
  • Subject (See Also): Bedrooms Christine de Pizan, Poet Dogs Domestic Space Heraldry Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen-Consort of Charles VI, King of France Ladies-in -Waiting Patronage, Literary Queens
  • Geographic Area: France
  • Century: 15
  • Date: ca. 1410-1414
  • Related Work: Also known as The Queen's Manuscript. Full page and additional folios available at: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8361&CollID=8&NStart=4431
  • Current Location: London, British Library, MS Harley 4431, 3r
  • Original Location:
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Manuscript illuminations
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment); Paint; Gold leaf
  • Donor: Laywoman; Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of King Charles VI of France (1385-1442)
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 36.5 cm (whole folio)/28.5 cm (whole folio)/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Sandra Hindman, "The Iconography of Queen Isabeau de Baviere (1410-1415)," Gazette des beaux-arts ser. 6 (1983): 102-10.